Sunday, July 12, 2009

Breakfast

Hey.

Another year. Another day. Another moment to sit and tell you stuff.

For starters, I haven't written since like May or something, and that's because I forgot about blogging, and then I forgot the password to get on here. The point is that i'm back.

Today's topic is breakfast.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, not to mention the perfect time to get a few palzy walzy's together and catch up.
My friend Jesse decided that he would start a blog about breakfast. That means that every Monday for the past few months we've gone to different cafes around Vancouver looking for the best breakfasts.

Today we went to the Nice Cafe situated around the corner of Fox Porn Cinema on Main and 6th.
Our meals were quite nice. Our friend Roz was eating with us and as nice a girl as she is, sometimes I worry for the people sitting around us who might be listening to our conversation.

"My roommate likes it when her boyfriend puts a vibrator in his butt because it makes his dick vibrate."

"Once upon a time I was trying to eat breakfast." replied Jesse.

The old ladies at the long table had hearing aids so it was okay.

There is no real point to this entry except maybe to check out his blog if you want a nice place to go for breakfast.

http://eatwithjesse.blogspot.com/

I will write again soon. I swear.


Tuesday, March 31, 2009

I'm back

Funny how on my day off, my plans become pushed forward to the next day off.
Today my list was:
Log and capture footage
Grocery shop
Send out my medicare card form
Maybe help my friends move
Go for a walk outside

Instead I:
Surfed craigslist
went for breakfast with Jesse
Surfed craigslist
Yoga
Surfed craigslist

However, I DID finish the form filling out, now I just need a photocopy of my ID and i'm set!

I'll talk to you later

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Clogging with Missanabie Cree Cloggers

So as you know, from my last entry, I have been filming a Women's conference for the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, a political organization representing 43 First Nations communities in Northern Ontario. So just to recap, in 8 days, i've filmed a music video for Nishnawbe Aski Nation's Youth Council, i've filmed workshops about auras, volunteering, healthy sexuality, yoga, tai chi, women's health, nurturing the youth, a Conway Twitty/Loretta Lynn/Tina Turner/Elvis/80's pop star/Hank William's impersonator as well as numerous interviews AND an election.

I'm very run down with the flu, and no matter how many herbal pills my colleague Roxanne tries to shove down my throat, nothing seems to be working. The hotel is so far from the city that I can't even get any Tylenol or cough drops. Today is the last day of the conference. I've been awake since 6:45am, and i'm on a 15 minute break until dinner is served.

I was able to start the day off by filming a group of women who called themselves the Missanabie Cree Cloggers. Not too many people know that i'm half Cree on my mother's side. Probably due to my pale face. Anyway, I know I was supposed to be the camera girl, but I couldn't help but leave the camera on a wide shot as I joined the group of cloggers clogging away to "I love that ole' Time Rock and Roll". It was lots of fun, and now I think i'll dig out the old tap shoes when I get home and learn that. After a short lunch, all the women made picket signs protesting Bill C8 on Matrimonial Real Property on reservations. This in a nut shell means that if a non Native woman divorced her Native husband, she would be left with nothing.

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2009/26/c4600.html (this is an article about the Rally)

So the women all jumped in a shuttle bus and headed to Indian Northern Affairs of Canada where they protested the unjust law until the regional manager decided to hear us out.

It was really cold on my fingers, but I didn't want to complain considering 80 year old elders and little kids were outside with no gloves holding signs too.

We headed back to the hotel on the shuttle bus happy with how the rally turned out. As soon as I walked in the lobby, all the producers and assistants started asking me to sign contracts and get invoices in to them for my payment. I spent an hour in my room printing invoices, and decided to relax by attending the Tai Chi workshop rather than filming it.

I have 3 more hours until the conference is over and I can pack to come home.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Drummers, the Twist, yoga, and Tai Chi



Today, I woke up at 6:45am, was ready by 7:30, relaxed until 7:55 and headed downstairs for breakfast. Today was the first day of the Women's Conference that I am filming. My breakfast consisted of eggs, toast, potatoes, and a variety of fruit. The agenda said breakfast was from 7:30 until 8:30. I ate by myself at a round table with eight empty seats. At another round table next to mine another woman ate her breakfast, and at a table across the room two young girls ate. For a conference of sixty guests it was odd that only four people were eating breakfast. As soon as 8:30 hit, and the caterers were taking the plates and trays away, all the rest of the guests finally woke up and made their way for breakfast. The poor waitress was bombarded by the late comers who were angry that breakfast was no longer being served even though the agenda said the times. Being the nice (but annoyed) girl she is, she asked everyone what they wanted and had another buffet made.

I filmed a women's drum circle, but the weather was bad, so only one woman showed up. I then filmed an elder tell us how Jesus saved her from a life of alcohol and bingo. Next up was a new age woman explaining how our seven chakras (energy points) of our body need to realize that our auras become more pleasant if we meditate and relax our minds. There was an exercise where she gathered volunteers from the crowd and measured their aura with a bent twig (known to her as her aura reader). As she walked towards each woman, her twig would start spinning and then she would stop letting them know how many feet their aura extends from their bodies. After that the Grand Chief Stan Beardy told a story about his mother, and then we all ate lunch.

I thought I grabbed a cheese sandwich, but it turned out to be egg salad, so I gave it to Tanner, a boy who is helping me film the conference. Tanner is the camera guy for a hunting show in the Yukon. He seems all right. After lunch a woman turned on her jam box and all the ladies got on stage and did the Twist. That was really weird and random. When the song ended another speaker approached the stage talking about the importance of volunteering in your community. It was boring so I wandered upstairs and filmed a yoga class. It was funny to see them attempt the positions. After interviewing the instructor, I went back downstairs where Master Phueng was teaching Tai Chi. Once he finished, I went to my room and watched Oprah.

It's now 8:30pm and I think i'll go downstairs to eat some dinner. I've decided that i'd like to save up my money and go on a holiday with Robbie. Any suggestions of a cool city or cheap but nice place to go?

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Saturday Night in Thunder Bay


When I woke up this morning, I felt like death. My alarm clock was buzzing but I didn't care, the most beautiful sunrise in the world was ascending over "The Sleeping Giant" illuminating Lake Superior, but I didn't care, and I had the most rotten taste of vending machine Doritos, beer, and morning breath all in one.

I looked at the bag of Doritos on the bedside table wondering where they came from, as well as the garbage can pulled next to my bed with three apple cores in the bottom that I don't remember eating. That's when my memory slowly made it's way back to me. It was three in the morning when Kevin and I stumbled back to our hotel. The elevator was out of order, so we went to the staff elevator behind the swimming pool where there was a vending machine. I didn't want the Doritos but I put a dollar in anyway.

I had spent the day filming a music video for the aboriginal youth council with my friend Roxanne, the Deputy Grand Chief. Her friend Kevin was staying in my hotel doing film work as well. It had been a long and tiring day, so after packing up, Kevin, Roxanne and I went to a Thai/Vietnamese restaurant called "Lovely Mango". Since dating a vegetarian for the past year and a half, i've hardly eaten any meat. I never ate it regularly before due to not cooking and taking the easy way out with Mac and Cheese, or bean burritos. I looked at the menu and decided to get the mango rice stir fry and a Chinese beer. Kevin ordered coconut soup, spring rolls and Chinese beer. Roxanne also had the soup with extra noodles, and a mint tea with honey on the side.

When my food arrived, it looked good, but didn't taste as good as I thought it would taste. I also noticed some chicken in it which made me think back to the last time I ate chicken ending up with food poisoning. I continued to eat it anyway. As Roxanne and Kevin were talking, I felt this odd sensation in my stomach. I knew I had to throw up, so I nonchalantly left the table and calmly walked towards the ladies room. However the washrooms only consisted of one toilet not numerous stalls. I arrived just in time to see a little old lady enter the room locking the door behind her. I couldn't wait for her to come out, so I went in the men's room and almost immediately after bending over, began throwing up everything I had just eaten. It was so violent with such great force, that a chunk of mango got lodged in my nasal cavity. I tried blowing it out and puking it out, but instead I coughed and it came shooting out plastering itself on the wall. I felt much better, and went back to the table.

I was unsure if maybe it was food poisoning again or if maybe my body just doesn't like meat at all. Before going back to the hotel, we stopped at Walmart. I had forgotten my swim suit at home so I bought a new one to make use of the hotel pool. Kevin decided it would be fun to go to a bar and drink a beer and write, so after Roxanne dropped us off at our hotel, we walked to Gargoyle's. The place was jam packed with Northern Yuppies (they do exist). It was too bad because there was a great jazz band playing. We decided to walk a little further to Tony and Adam's. Kevin was almost positive that the two hot waiters (perhaps Tony and Adam) were gay, so he was thrilled when one of them came to our table. And to be honest, he totally ignored me and wouldn't take his eyes off Kevin who resembles a native Johnny Depp.

I don't really know Kevin, and had only briefly met him at a function a year ago, so it was interesting to hear what he had to say. He told me that when he was working for the Sundance film festival, a porn director stopped to talk to him. He looked at Kevin's hands and told him that he could never work in the gay porn industry because they prefer people with small hands. Big hands just make a penis look small. Then Kevin looked at my hands and told me they would be perfect. I became self conscious and hid them under the table for the rest of our stay. After three beers Kevin pulled out a brochure that someone had given him. It advertised a drag queen show going on at 11:45 at a bar called "Black Pirate's".

As we walked, Kevin who doesn't smoke decided to buy a cigarette off a kid. We shared it and I felt terrible. Before we could even enter the bar, there was a mob of metal heads in black leather, black hoodies, black boots, and studded belts. As we stared at them, they asked us our names and why we were in Thunder Bay. We told them we were filmmakers visiting from Vancouver and Winnipeg. One of them came forward and began ranting for twenty minutes about how we need to make a movie about trans-gendered prisons and the need for them. He told us he was a hater and hated everything about politics and the government.

We finally made our way into the bar to discover a rockin' metal band on stage. The kind of metal band that can swing their long greasy hair in circles perfectly as they shred a mean riff. After their performance, the drag show began. Her name was Andrika, and she was the prettiest little boy dressed as a girl ever. If she had boobs, I would've thought it was a real girl. Kevin was amazed by her dancing and lip syncing and her subtle shimmies with the slutty girls. By now we were on our fifth beer, even though I should've stopped after the first three especially since I didn't even get a chance to digest dinner. I have a problem saying "no" when people buy me drinks. After two more metal bands, and a hip hop duo, the Black Pirate's closed down for the night. I had drank six beers (maybe seven), and I wanted to stumble home to bed. Kevin on the other hand insisted another bar would be open, so we walked to another bar that he claimed his friend worked at. It was clearly closed. The lights were out, and the doors were locked, yet I watched as Kevin knocked on all the windows and back entrances.
Finally we gave up and came back to the hotel.

I'm lying in bed not wanting to move or be at work for 9:00am.


The picture is mine and Kevin's hotel. My room is the top right, and his is right below me. Some people told me my floor is haunted by all the ghostly drug addicts who have overdosed in it's 100 years.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

So far so good?

Hello. It's been a long time since I wrote something so here goes. I've been reading a lot. I like to read, but when I do I tend to start 5 books at the same time, so it takes a while to get a book finished. Right now i'm reading "The Wind Up Bird" by Haruki Murakami, "Water For Elephants" by Sarah Gruen and rereading "Delta Venus" by Anais Nin. 

I wanted to put up my own music on here, but the only way to do so is by putting up a video. So I hope this works.