on the shoulder of giants

i saw the da vinci code today. it was alright. tom hanks' head looked like a potato.

but i guess all my wishing aloud this weekend made an impact: as my university graduation present - despite the fact that i expressly and honestly told him that i do not want one - my father has offered to pay for my bartender schooling. so it looks like my june will be occupied with mixology lessons and learning when to cut drunks off. i may have plenty of experience on the other side of the bar (y'know, the one where you're imbibing as opposed to vending), but developing my skills with a martini shaker seems like it'll be a fun challenge.

via the modern age: pete wentz has a new scheme to get you to buy his label's newest signing. sure, it's opportunistic, but hey, at least the guy can obviously laugh at himself. here's trent's take over at pink is the new blog. pics sorta nsfw, i guess.

and in regards to the whole fall out boy brouhaha - which i've been privy to finally experiencing via music secret - it's like i said before: i do find it very encouraging that a musician, any musician, could elicit such a passionate emotional response in people (whether good or bad, whether based around the music itself or not). that's an amazingly positive thing when it comes to bands, in my opinion. you love fall out boy, you hate fall out boy, what the fuck ever. it all comes back to something a musician once told me, and i haven't forgotten it: "you never want mediocre press. even bad press is worth talking about. the absolute worst thing ever is to just get 'they're okay' -- those are the bands that get forgotten. even bands that are hated make an impact."

a very smart musician, that one.

not so smart a musician - but a smart label - in this case: rough trade drops pete doherty. i kind of wonder what took them so long. but it all makes me remember the final lines in that rolling stone article, which i read through blurred vision. honest to god. he's a junkie and fuckup, but for christ's sake, i don't want to see him die.

ricky of the kaiser chiefs narrowly avoids death by car. he apparently jumped onto the car's windshield, thus avoiding head-on impact. the new spider-man? perhaps!

this made me laugh. this made me laugh harder. i wish i didn't love that band.

nike + ipod. we have now officially reached the 21st century.

oooh, and i'm wearing this to the kill hannah toronto gig (now t-minus 12 days away), thanks to the mad sewing skillz of my mother; it's been one of my favourite minidresses for a year now, but as of late it's been hanging off my bodily structure like i'm nicole fucking richie or something. a few altered seams later, and it clings just as it should in all the right places. i figure "cybergoth glitter-hottie" is the best look to aim for in this gig's case.

finished rereading oryx and crake yesterday; still one of the scariest fucking novels i've ever read. two years and over half a dozen reads later, and it continues to just chill my blood. i think it's because i've never read any book with such a likely vision of the apocalypse -- everything that happens in it is totally possible, and probably happening already without our knowledge. (to quoth the esteemed author herself, one of my absolute favourites: "...it invents nothing we haven't already invented or started to invent. Every novel begins with a what if, and then sets forth its axioms. The what if of Oryx and Crake is simply, What if we continue down the road we're already on? How slippery is the slope? What are our saving graces? Who's got the will to stop us?") check out the website. oryx and crake and antoine de saint-exupery's le petit prince remain the only two books that have ever truly rattled me.

anyway! this shall be my last transmission from my teenage household until...uh...sometime. though i have to say, it never ceases to amaze me that the last time i was here, in this house, in this basement, it was with a box of kleenex and a few too many glasses of liqueur, hugging my knees to my chest and crying silent tears for longer than i want to admit.

but that was then. and i'm so over it now, it makes me roll my eyes to think of it. for once, apathy towards something i once cared so deeply about actually feels pretty damn good.

hallefuckinglujah.

i'm back in toronto tomorrow afternoon. onwards and upwards.

[ music | radiohead, "2 + 2 = 5" ]