Thoughts on Tom Mulcair's "Hotline Bling" Dance...

This Hour Has 22 Minutes says that we'll get the full video tonight, but even 9 seconds of Tom Mulcair doing Drake's "Hotline Bling" is well... mindblowing? ...disturbing? ...like the first time someone dipped chocolate in peanut butter?

From @RosieBarton to @nationalpost, Canada's been asking where @ThomasMulcair's been. We found him. He found @Drake pic.twitter.com/MIzgdIrTAE

— 22Minutes (@22_Minutes) November 3, 2015

But when I first saw it, my train of thought completely derailed:

1. Wow - that's Tom Mulcair doing "Hotline Bling."
2. Does Tom Mulcair have any idea who Drake is?
   
   
3. Does Drake have any idea who Tom Mulcair is? 
   
4. Is Drake even allowed to vote?
5. If he is, for whom did Drake vote?
6. Am I the only one who rewrites sentences just to avoid misuse of the word "who"?
7. Have I really become that boring that I'm sitting here wondering about the voting habits of a rap star and poor grammar amongst the populace?
8. Did I just use the word "amongst"?
9. And "populace"?
10. Does anyone else EVER use the word "amongst" anymore?
11. Quick! Do something cool! 
12. Umm...
13. Crap. I'm really that boring.
14. Damn you, Tom Mulcair! This is ALL YOUR FAULT!!!

But here: it's Stephen Harper with Justin Bieber.

I don't feel so bad now.

Blue Skies, Smilin' at Me

My blogging has been less than zero lately, here and on my other blogs. Blogging rules say that I'm not "supposed" to apologize for long absences, so I won't, but I am going to explain where I've been anyway. It's my blog, and I can do what I want!

I've been a more than a little preoccupied lately with a musical that I've been working on now since August. It's a production of "White Christmas" that the Scugog Choral Society in Port Perry is doing. (Tickets are almost sold out, but you can get what's left here) It's based on the old Bing Crosby/Danny Kaye movie, for those who don't know. It has fantastic music, a lot of dancing, and a whole lotta love! And the parting of the Red Sea! No, seriously!

The show closes tomorrow night. We have three shows left between now and then. Honestly, despite the show taking over a large chunk of my life lately, I am pretty bummed about the end.

I hear a lot from people in my life that I shouldn't "waste my time" being in the chorus of shows. These are people who love me, and care about me, and know my background in theatre. They think I should hold out and only do shows if I have lead roles. I understand where they're coming from, and truthfully I'm always a little bit bummed out to be "in the chorus AGAIN" but I don't have the strongest singing voice, and I know that, so even though it's always a bit disappointing to be given yet another chorus role, I end up accepting happily, because I know that in the end I will enjoy myself. I also don't do these shows in the hopes of being discovered by an agent, or a major movie director who just HAPPENS to go see a show in small town Ontario. I do them because I love musicals. I have them in my blood. I love the fact that in musicals it's okay - even expected - to have BIG emotions. If you're happy, you're the happiest guy in the world, but if you're not, it's the biggest trauma you've ever experienced. There's no in between in musicals. I love the costumes, and the dancing, and most of all, the music.

I openly admit that I wish life were like a musical. I truly believe that I should have an orchestra follow me around at all times who could just play along to whatever song fits my emotional state at the time. It's one of the reasons I love Glee - they just HAPPEN to have a band who can play any song, any time. It's my dream for life.

This show has been so much more to me, though. I always enjoy doing shows, but sometimes the cast gels better than others. This has been one of those times. I knew a lot of the cast members before, through other productions with various companies, and some were good friends, but there were some I had never had the opportunity to work with previously. There were some I had "known" but didn't really know. There were a few that I was already good friends with. This particular combination, though, has proven to be magical (yes Liz, I'm stealing your word!)

I am really sad to know that after Saturday night I won't see these people again, in this particular grouping, on a regular basis. As much as I know my husband is dying to have me home again all the time to help with the kids, it has been a joy to go to the Town Hall, knowing that I was going to see them, and spend the evening running up and down stairs for copious costume changes, sitting backstage and whispering along to songs I don't get to sing, but wish I did, and occasionally making somewhat obscene comments - away from the younger members of the cast, of course! I've gotten to spend more time with one good friend than I have in years; I've gotten to know people I've worked with previously, but didn't really spend time with (even if some of them are total divas who have to have a follow spot everywhere they go!); and I've been lucky enough to get to know a few new absolutely fabulous people that I hope will stay in my life after the curtain closes for the last time.

There's almost always a camaraderie amongst a cast, and over the years I've learned that those fast friendships formed backstage can quickly fade after the final curtain call. I really hope that won't be the case this time. The friendships I've made, and strengthened, are far too valuable for that.

An Evening in Yorkville

I used to work at Bloor St and Avenue Rd in Toronto, but that was a long time ago. It's been over six years since I spent a lot of time down there. If this tells you anything, I can count on two hands the number of times I've ridden the subway since we returned to Canada in 2008.

Truthfully, I preferred it when I worked further downtown. At least there I could afford to shop! In Yorkville (as the area around Bloor and Avenue is called) the stores are more Chanel and Versace than Wal-Mart and Dollar Giant. Being near the Eaton's Centre was great. I liked being within walking distance of the SkyDome (you can call it the Rogers Centre from now until Kingdom come, but it will always be the SkyDome to me!) and the Mirvish empire known as the "Entertainment District". I just love the feel of that area of Toronto.

But that being said, the one time of year that it's cool to be in Yorkville is during the Toronto International Film Festival, commonly referred to as "TIFF." During TIFF the entire area changes and starts dripping with celebrities. My big story from TIFF was always in 2002, when I saw Nick Nolte eating lunch at an outside cafe outside the Club Monaco store on Bloor. I went back to my office and was talking to a coworker who also saw him, and we both agreed that he looked like one of the homeless guys who sleep on the back ledges of the Club Monaco store. A few days later a certain famous photo of him was taken:

Tonight, for the first time in seven years, I wandered around Yorkville during TIFF. I was only there for about an hour, and it was the wrong time of day for celebrity-spotting. In fact, the most exciting thing I saw was - I think - Jon Hamm. And I've never watched Mad Men, so not all that exciting for me.

So, I had a lot of time for observations, and here are the ones that I remember:

1. Walking around Yorkville during TIFF, everyone looks like they could be somebody. 90% of them, aren't.
2. There are a lot of Escalades with tinted windows during TIFF.
3. During TIFF, I think that the population of Toronto (usually around 2.5 million) becomes much closer to the population of New York City (around 8.5 million). Seriously, I have not seen so many people crowded on to one section of sidewalk since the last time I was in Manhattan.
4. No offense to my American friends, but it is SO easy to tell the Americans when you're walking around Yorkville right now.
5. I don't like cigar bars. This has nothing to do with TIFF, but I just didn't like the giant cloud of smelly cigar smoke that got puffed into my face.
6. I did not see Ben Affleck. Despite being told that he's a jackass, I'm still disappointed.
7. I also did not see Ben Mulroney, despite hanging around a building with ETalk logos all over it.
8. I do miss being in Toronto. Hopefully as my kids get older it will be easier for me to just go and hang out again the way that I used to. Roger Ebert has made me a fan for life with the way he's been tweeting Toronto's praises in the past couple of days.

So that's it! My random thoughts after a brief evening in Yorkville. Anyone else have TIFF experiences or thoughts to share?

Finding Myself - One Blog at a Time...

I spent a lot of time last night thinking about blogging - far too much time, truth be told. I watched Julie and Julia, the Nora Efron movie that used a double narrative to describe the lives of Julia Child, America's French cooking instructor, and Julie Powell, the woman who became famous for blogging about her adventures trying to follow Child's recipes.

My thought process went like this:

First off, as Julie's audience grew, I found myself wondering for the umpteenth time (How many is "umpteen"? Does that fall between 16 & 17 or 13 & 14?) how on earth she got so many readers. My green-eyed monster came out to play, in other words. It happens a lot when I see a really popular blog. I start to wonder exactly what I'm doing wrong. Not enough self-promotion? Not using the right keywords, to be picked up by search engines? Is there somewhere I'm supposed to list my blog so that people will find it? Or do I really just suck?

Then, while I was still contemplating my failure to generate readership, the scene came when Julie and her husband, Eric, fight over her obsession with her blog. At one point she asks him, "Isn't that what blogging is about? Me, me, me?"

At the same time, I was surfing around looking for ways to promote myself (still having follower-envy) and one directory listed their criteria for listing a blog:

1) Must be topical - no personal blogs (AKA No "Today we went to the market and I took this picture of Little Bobby biting on a lemon.")

2) Blog cannot contain material copied and pasted from other sources.

Okay, this one gave me pause. I make it a point to always credit my sources, so to me, that's not the issue here. But isn't the point of a blog to be writing?

I started my other site as a parenting site. I thought I'd have a lot to say about that. I really didn't want to blother on constantly about my own kids, though. I wanted to write about issues. I wanted the site to have some journalistic integrity.

But the fact is, being a parent is only a part of who I am. I found myself dying to comment on other issues on which I had an opinion - and believe me, there are many. All of which led to the spur-of-the-moment creation of this site.

Much like Julie and Julia, I think I'm trying to find myself these days. That's a concept I've always mocked, but I'm really starting to understand it now. My earliest ambition was to be a writer, so I suppose that's a logical place to start. Which is why it's all the more disappointing to me that I'm not doing a lot of writing. Copying and pasting someone else's article, and then doing a one paragraph, or even one-sentence commentary on it might work for someone like Perez Hilton, but it's not good enough for me.

I really do like this blog, and I have no intention of quitting. What I want to do, though, is assume intelligence on the part of my readers - at least enough to be able to click a link to an article if I feel more information is warranted on an issue. Me, though, I'll be focusing more on my opinions on the issues, rather than on trying so hard to be a reporter that I'm just regurgitating others' work.

One thing I liked about that movie: Julia Child was 37 when she started to learn to cook. I'm 33, at least for a few more weeks (I'm still 33... I'm still 33...) Despite my inner voice telling me that I should have it all figured out by now, I guess it's okay that I don't. Someday I'll figure out what I want to be when I grow up.