finally, something the LCBO does right...

The Liquor Control Board of Ontario recently announced it is phasing out plastic shopping bags at its retail outlets. Click here for the full story but below is a quick synopsis. Now, if only we could manage to get them to loosen their stranglehold on the private importing of wine...

"The LCBO estimates it provides shoppers with about 80 million bags per year. Liquor stores will continue to offer paper bags and cardboard boxes for purchases once the current supply of plastic bags runs dry. David Caplan, minister of public infrastructure renewal, and John Gerretsen, minister of the environment, announced the changes Tuesday afternoon.

The Canadian Plastics Industry Association says such bans are unnecessary as plastic bags can be reused and recycled. "The decision to drop plastic shopping bags but keep paper bags at LCBO outlets is a political decision, not a decision based on science," said Serge Lavoie, president and CEO of the CPIA in a release.
"Once people understand that plastic bags are 100 per cent recyclable and are a better environmental choice than paper, they'll make informed decisions based on fact." Plastic bags dissolve over 1,000 years, according to the environmental research group Worldwatch Institute. The group says consumers around the globe dispose of 500 billion plastic sacs every year."

Politics aside, I say any step, no matter how small is a good thing. Sure they'll still hand out paper bags but maybe knowing the LCBO won't hand out plastic will make some people bring in a cloth bag just because they're sturdier. Baby steps people, baby steps....

pork and beans

Okay so I finally caved and watched Weezer's video for their new song "Pork and Beans" and I confess, I totally see what all the fuss is about -- it's freaking great!! It's gotten over 3 million hits on YouTube and the reason why? Cuz it's starring a pile of "famous" YouTubers including the Peanut Butter Jelly Time crew, ditzy Miss America dude, the Mentos in the Coke gag...even Kevin Federline. The song isn't anything to write home about but I'm all over the video. Enjoy your 15 minutes of fame uber-nerds! And your mother said making all those YouTube videos was a waste of time. Heck you might even get to kiss a girl with this!

Attention Londoners....

...Shannon this means you! Please go to this installation and take pictures! It's the prettiest thing ever and I want to see a picture of you an L2 floating happily in a little yellow rowboat. It's called normally proceeding and unrestricted without title by Austrian artist Gelitin, and is at the Hayward Gallery in London. So lovely.

Hot Bunny Radio Playlist for May 22nd

CKLU 96.7FM

* denotes Canadian talent

italics denotes a new release

• Bob Dylan -- Obviously 5 Believers -- Blonde on Blonde
• Jim Guthrie -- Broken Chair -- Now More Than Ever *
• Kyp Harness -- Epistle to the Demolition Crew -- The Floating World *
• The Replacements -- Rock n' Roll Ghost -- Don't Tell A Soul
• Islands -- Creeper -- Arm's Way *
• Morcheeba -- Big Calm -- Big Calm
• Elliot Smith -- Everything Means Nothing To Me -- Figure 8
• Rheostatics -- When Winter Comes -- Melville *
• Les Breastfeeders -- En Dansant Le Yah! -- Les Matins de Grands Soirs *
• Sebadoh -- Mystery Man -- Bakesale
• Constantines -- Brother Put Them Down -- Kensington Heights *
• Guided By Voices -- Car Language -- Universal Truths and Cycles
• Eric Hutchison -- OK, It's Alright With Me -- Sounds Like This
• The Weakerthans -- Aside -- Left and Leaving *
• Julie Doiron & The Wooden Stars -- Sweeter -- Julie Doiron & The Wooden Stars *
• The Grates -- Sukkafish -- Gravity Won't Get You High
• Daniel Lanois -- Still Water - Acadie *
• The Black Keys -- So He Won't Break -- Attack and Release
• The Easter Dogs -- Oh Yeah -- The Easter Dogs *
• Feist -- Lonely Lonely (Frisbee'd Mix) -- Open Season (Remixes & Collabs) *
• Pretenders with The Duke String Quartet -- Sense of Purpose -- Bridge School Concerts
• Frank Black - Pie in the Sky -- Teenager of the Year
• New Buffalo -- Cheer Me Up Thank You -- Somewhere, Anywhere *
• Kevin Drew -- TBTF -- Spirit If

Notes this week:

• Dear Jim Guthrie: Please don't say you're so busy writing jingles for bank commercials that you don't have time to put out a new record.  I just love you so;
• That Breastfeeders song has the best title ever;
• Seriously, that Eric Hutchison was bad.  Way too white soul;
• If I were too legitimately try and sing a duet, "Sweeter" would be my first choice, hands down;
• Thank you Kelly for bringing the song "Sukkafish" into my life;
• So far, that Black Keys song is my favourite from the new record;
• Teenager of the Year:  If only every record ever could be as good as you;
• That New Buffalo song makes me happier than I can even describe.

payback's a bitch...

Yup....that's in there.

the basics

Love it!!! Thanks to Jane for finding this amazing market tote by Rebecca Minkoff. Talk about life's most important grocery items! You can pick it up over at Ravinstyle for $165. Hard to make a case for that kind of expenditure when my current market totes cost me $.099 but I love it anyway.

weekend round-up

Friday started on a sad note with a long-distance mourning of the hopelessly furry and adorable Maddy, Kaili and LB's cat. Sad news indeed. I'm terribly allergic to cats but love them anyway and Maddy not only respected my allergic boundaries but seemed to go out of her way to be cute and highly entertaining from afar. Hope you guys are doing alright after such awfulness and we send you buckets of love.

Friday night I got to reap the benefits of Marc's Thursday night tapas cooking class. He made a dinner so yummy it could only be described as Dinner-asaurus Rex. I so married the right guy.

The rest of the weekend seemed to be all gardening all the time. Saturday I got my first sunburn of the summer tending to my gardens. Yikes. Good news, we got our window boxes all planted up, new lawn seed down (thanks for nothing moles) and almost all the weeding done. We ventured downtown for the morning to hit the annual summer street sale and nabbed 2 great big serving plates for mere dollars! After such a long day in the sun Marc treated me to pizzas at the Laughing Buddha and then off to the Townehouse. Marc and his ladies had their 2nd ever gig as Jean Wells and it was super fun. They even had a post-show gathering of fans at the stage! Rolling Stone magazine is surely the next step. They get better every time they play and are now calling themselves the bastard lovechild of the Go-Go's and the Be Good Tanyas. Fun stuff!

Sunday we paid a visit to my poor bashed up mother who tripped over their dog Mina at the lake and succeeded in breaking her hand, cutting her forehead and tearing up her knee. Anyone with a dog can surely relate to how unavoidable they can sometimes be, despite how much they might try to get out of your way. She's able to laugh it off thankfully , especially since she had to walk home from the lake covered in blood and swollen like some kind of horrific accident victim. Maybe we should be more concerned that nobody offered to help her? You would think if you saw an older woman who had clearly been in some kind of trouble that you might stop and offer to help? Especially if she's not only covered in blood but trying to still walk a dog with her one good hand? Ahhhh society. She's fine though and thinks the whole thing is pretty amusing, cast and all.

More weekends please....

utah

R.I.P Utah Phillips who passed away on Saturday at age 73 at his home in Nevada after a long fought illness. Legendary folksinger, storyteller and tireless supporter of the working people, his influence on American folk music will not soon be forgotten.

"I tried to leave behind permanent structures for this music and this community, and I tried to leave behind an attitude that we're all part of a larger community, and that there's a whole lot of sharing that can go on. What I was looking for was a feeling of fellowship, of loyalty for the people who were keeping these places alive, putting food in my mouth, helping me pay my rent and have this career. So what am I doing for them, besides coming to their town, doing a show and then leaving? What am I leaving behind?"

ode to toile

Damn, Dita von Teese really is just about perfect. I know my husband sure thinks so. Here she is looking perfect as usual at the Chopard Lounge in Cannes. I don't know whose amazing toile dress she's wearing but I would trade just about anything to have it. Although looking at that picture, clearly that dress was made for nobody but her. The colour against her pale skin and her hair?? Crazy!! And dripping in diamonds like that never hurts either...

[Image via JPI Studios as taken from Perez Hilton.]

Takin' a bite outta the big apple

Tickets are purchased for anniversary trip 2008!! 5 glorious days in the big city and we're gonna do it up right. Anniversary dinner at the Four Seasons, pizza eating at a hole in the wall in Little Italy, a trip to Kate Spade for Kaili, chilling out in Central Park, Museum of Natural History, drinks in Soho, you name it and we're gonna do it. Happlily taking all suggestions from repeat visitors and residents (Abbey that means you!).

knock 'em dead kid

I had to post this photo because I just can't get over the cuteness of it. This is pals Mike and Tara's little baby girl Charlie wearing a onesie/skirt combo thing we bought her from the Lowleepop Etsy store. There is nobody on this earth who is a bigger Motley Crue fan than Charlie's dad Mike so when I saw this I had to buy it and just prayed it would fit her. It even came with an adorable little star hat. She's such a rock star -- I love it!! It's a great little store for baby gifts and everything comes wrapped in these tiny Chinese take out boxes. Their rock and roll onesie gift pack is classic.

tapas-tastic

So tonight Marc is taking a cooking class through Kitchen Bits and the Y.U.M Culinary Academy all about Spanish tapas. The thought of summer tapas in my home is almost enough to get me through this bout of horrendous weather. Mmmmmm......tapas-y goodness.

90210, I wish I could quit you...

Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in........who am I kidding??? I'm beyond beside myself for the new Beverly Hills 90210 spinoff! Why can't it be today???? How many more sleeps???? It's awful, I know. I'm far too old for this type of show and yet I'm hopelessly down for the count. It'll be trashy, gossipy, most likely fairly trampy and 100% made for Tara. I'll be watching it weekly with chips and snacks for sure. They put out a trailer yesterday and that alone sent me over the moon! What's even better? Jessica Walter from Arrested Development appears to be playing the grandmother! Cool bit of trivia? Shenae Grimes is playing the lead female character. She's better known for her role on the new Degrassi but she also played the role of a young Shania Twain in the movie of the week that shot right here in Sudbury that we worked on! How's that for full circle?

Anyway, as you can tell I'm fairly pumped for this show to start. From the trailer it looks like they've got all the appropriate characters lined up: wide-eyed principal's daughter, snobby rich girl, playful jock, journalistic teen hearthrob, even a Full House blast from the past -- yup, sounds about right. Of course that being said, it's also perfectly suited to being cancelled 2 weeks into the run. Sweet baby jessie, don't let that happen.

anywhere I lay my head

So tomorrow is the big day -- sexpot Scarlett Johansson drops her much talked about album of Tom Waits' covers entitled Anywhere I Lay My Head. Now, I'm as skeptical as the next guy anytime a movie star tosses out a record. Make it a Tom Waits cover album and I'm pretty much signed off already. That being said, I watched some footage of her studio session today (click here to see it) and I gotta say, she's not terrible. I'm not buying the album or anything nor do I totally love her stuff, but I'm fairly pleased with her not pop-starring it out on this. She's mellow, chill and basically not trying anything crazy and her voice is very cool. I also gotta say that I like the studio session stuff 100 times better than the recorded stuff (see video below for comparison). I'm not down with that video they put out at all really. But live, I dig it a little bit. Very PJ Harvey meets Ronnie Spector-ish. And if David Bowie liked it enough to lend his vocals, well then who are we to point and laugh?

attention everyone...

I'd like to introduce you to the newest addition of my Fluevog family, my Operetta Viardot heels in goldenrod and cream. I think we're going to be very happy together. Buckets of thanks to Michael for getting Brittainy's shoe size horribly wrong thus uniting the Operetta's and I forever in shoe perfection.

Bailey: The True King of Narnia

Maybe the reason why I think Aslan rocks is because he's so much like Bailey. Look at the resemblance -- it's uncanny. So wise. So regal. Aslan too.

looong weekend round-up

Thank whoever you have to thank for long weekends!  They're just plain ol'outstanding.  We stretched it out into a 5 day weekend which was a kind of good they haven't even invented yet.  I thought about blogging tons but then realized the last thing I wanted to do after the last few weeks was spend any more time in front of a stupid computer.  

Thursday started out the 5 day weekend and we kicked it off in style by going out tree-planting with Marc's office.  He does environmental-type work and they go planting every year and since I was off I opted to tag along and do my part for Mother Nature.  We had glorious weather and there were sandwiches.  What more can you ask for.  Here's some sweet tree-planting action shots from the day.

Friday brought the start of the weekend's craptacular weather and the squashing of our Manitoulin Island getaway plans.  I instead spent the day watching the tree guy take down a very old and very dead tree in our backyard (good thing I went tree-planting to reverse the damage).  On the positive side, the tree isn't going to come crashing down on our house or our neighbours' house during the next storm, the rest of the trees in our yard should now thrive and we've got enough firewood to get us through the next 2 winters.  So even though it was hard to watch, it was for the greater good.  I also managed to get my weeding done before it rained and became officially mega-crappy.  Friday night brought a lovely lovely dinner out with Ma and Pa Levesque and the start of wine time.  Wine time thankfully continued throughout the weekend.

Saturday we hung about the house being domestic.  Luckily it was still wine time so that helped to end the day on a high note.

Sunday my mother and I shopped like there was no tomorrow.  We pretty much cleaned out the Joe Fresh sale -- I actually bought a pink summer dress.  Don't tell anyone.  Two more stores later and we headed home with about 546 bags of loot.  I even let my mom talk me into getting a buttery soft, chocolate brown leather hip-length, double-breasted swing coat.  It might be the best thing ever.  And it was a RIDICULOUS bargain.  Happy Tara indeed.  End the day with an impromptu family dinner with the neices and their folks and you've got a pretty darn great day on your hands.  Oh yeah, and it was still wine time.  

Monday was the saddest day ever.  I have to go back to work tomorrow.  I was hoping this day would not, in fact, show up.  Here we are though.  To help take the sting off, we started the day with fresh baked scones (thanks to Kaili for bringing the Sconewitch into my life) and hit the movie theatre to hide from the bone-chilling cold.  On the menu, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian which was just what the doctor ordered.  2 1/2 hours of pure escapist movie watching and it was great.  I loved the first movie and this one was just as good.  Not as wide-eyed fantastical as the first one but when you're dealing with this genre, that's generally what happens.  The first one is meant to show you what's what, how stuff works etc and the second one has to get down to business.   It was super exciting, much more serious, had some pretty bad fake-Spanish accents, and was just plain great fantasy.  I would have liked more Aslan cuz he's just cool but I totally get why there wasn't.  I'm just demanding with my fuzzy lion screentime.  Prince Caspian = outstanding weekend matinee choice and worth the wait.

Hot Bunny Radio Playlist for May 15th

CKLU 96.7 FM

*denotes Canadian talent

italics denotes a new release

• Woodhands -- Breaking Up -- Heart Attack *
• Pretty Girls Make Graves -- Domino -- Elan Vital
• Immaculate Machine -- Old Flame -- Fables *
• Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova -- Falling Slowly -- Once OSR
• Danny Michel -- Tell Sally -- Feather, Fur and Fin *
• The Violet Archers -- Sunshine at Night -- Sunshine at Night *
• The Fratellis -- Doginabag -- Costello Music
• The Blue Seeds -- My Fair Weather Friend -- The Blue Seeds
• Justin Rutledge -- Everyone's in Love -- Man Descending *
• She & Him -- Change Is Hard -- Volume One
• Peter, Bjorn and John -- Object of My Affection -- Writer's Block
• Old Crow Medicine Show -- Big Time in the Jungle -- O.C.M.S *
• The Hidden Cameras -- Heaven Turns To -- AWOO *
• Nathan Lawr & the Minotaurs -- That Moment -- A Sea of Tiny Lights *
• The New Pornographers -- Mutiny, I Promise You - Challengers *
• Neko Case -- Knock Loud -- Live from Austin, TX *
• Jenn Grant -- Make It Home Tonight -- Orchestra For The Moon *
• The Priddle Concern -- Back Around -- The Priddle Concern *
• Jenny Whiteley -- Yellow Couch -- Dear *
• The Beau Brummels -- Laugh, Laugh -- It Seems So Funny To Me (Kelly mix)
• Maow -- How Does That Grab You -- The Unforgiving Sounds of *
• The Arcade Fire -- Intervention -- Neon Bible *
• Matthew Barber -- And You Give -- Ghost Notes *
• John Tielli -- Do You Want to Talk All Night? -- A Sappy Records to Snailhouse *

Notes this week:

• That scene in Once where they play that song for the first time is one of those movie scenes where you suddenly realize you haven't been breathing for a few minutes.  This movie might not change your life but it will come close;
• I haven't 100% loved Tim Vesely's Violet Archers project in the past but I 100% love that song;
• How fun is that Blue Seeds song you ask?  Funner than you, that's how fun!
• Someone who knows tons about tons told me last weekend that Justin Rutledge is poised to be one of Canada's greatest songwriters.  If you check out who played on his newest record, looks like a lot of people are in agreement with that -- Ron Sexsmith, Jim Bryson, Melissa McClelland, Oh Susanna, Hawksley Workman, Colin Cripps, Jenn Grant...
• The Priddle Concern:  Remember back when Treble Charger was a decent indie Canadian band? Before Bill Priddle bailed and handed the reigns over to Greg Niori who turned them into pop-punk mainstream ass-kissers?  Well, Bill's back with a solo effort and it kicks ass.  Thankfully, he capitalized on his Broken Social Scene dabblings and nabbed Amy Millan for some backup vocals as well as Brendan Canning and some others.  It's a really good record.   Yet another great export from Sault Ste Marie...
• Dear Matthew Barber:  You are super handsome.

to legging or not to legging?

I was always very anti-legging craze. Probably because I lived through it once already and I'm pretty much 100% against this 80's fashion resurgence that's happening. I really don't like any of it and had decided not to take part. That is until I saw these outfits on Deadwood's Etsy shop. The tunic is darling and an outfit like this seems perfectly suited to summer festival-ing, something I do a lot of. Now the question is, do I cave to the comfy or stand my anti-legging ground?

what to do after a conference?

...take a 5 day weekend starting tomorrow. Looks like I'll be doing a bit of this on Carter's Bay on Manitoulin Island -- my favourite place in the whole world:
Unfortunately a bit of this for sure:
Some of this definitely:
And so much of this it's crazy:

bad blogger

So I'm going to be a bad blogger the next few days and this is why. We're putting on a music and film conference this weekend and it will take up every waking minute I have. I do promise a full birthday party blogpost though as the pictures trickling back to me are completely blog-worthy.

For you folks who might be interested and/or in the hood, you can read all about our Northern Ontario Music and Film Awards and Conference on our website. In a nutshell, it's a grassroots industry conference for folks living up here. We're flying in all kinds of fun music and film industry folk, hosting film screenings, a music showcase and a pile of great parties all leading up to our Awards gala on Saturday. It's cheap too so click here for ticket prices etc. Also coming, the Six String Nation guitar so expect to see some fun new pics with this lovely little piece of Canadian history.

Then on Monday I sleep. Even though I have to come to work, I'll be sleeping. In my chair, on my desk, curled up in a ball on the floor.......

Hot Bunny Radio Playlist for May 1st

CKLU 96.7 FM
* denotes Canadian talent
italics denotes a new release

• Thurston Moore -- American Coffin -- Trees Outside the Academy
• Curtis Mayfield -- Get Down -- Very Best Of
• The Who -- Shakin' All Over -- Live at Leeds (vinyl)
• NQ Arbuckle -- Sun's Hangin Low -- The Last Supper in a Cheap Town *
• Flight of the Conchords -- Robots -- Flight of the Conchords
• Rick White -- Birds & Bees -- Do You Want To Talk All Night? A Sappy Records Tribute to Snailhouse *
• Supergrass -- Ghost of a Friend -- Diamond Hoo Ha
• The Weakerthans -- Uncorrected Proofs -- Reconstruction Site (vinyl) *
• The D'Urbervilles -- Dragnet -- We Are The Hunters *
• Teenage Head with Marky Ramone -- Let's Shake -- Teenage Head with Marky Ramone *
• Talking Heads -- Artists Only -- More Songs About Buildings and Food (vinyl)
• Christa Couture -- Nothing's Changed -- The Wedding Singer & The Undertaker *
• Black Mountain -- Night Walks -- In The Future *
• Leona Naess -- How Sweet -- Leona Naess
• Ronnie Spector -- Bye Bye Baby -- She Talks To Rainbows
• Claire Jenkins avec band -- For The Neighbours -- Crow's Nest/ Nid de Pie *
• Violent Femmes -- Cold Canyon -- The Blind Leading The Naked (vinyl)
• Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds -- Moonland -- Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
• The Raconteurs -- You Don't Understand Me -- Consolers of the Lonely
• Feist -- Brandy Alexander -- The Reminder *
• Danny Michel -- I'm a Love You Anyway -- Feather, Fur & Fin *
• Cat Power -- Aretha, Sing One For Me -- Jukebox
• Otis Redding -- Daytripper -- Live in Europe (vinyl)
• Dressy Bessy -- Maybe Laughter -- Sound Go Round
• Booker T. Jones & Jolie Holland -- What a Wonderful World -- What a Wonderful World single

Notes this week:

• You have to love NQ Arbuckle for lyrics like this: "You promised that there would be breakfast/ And I wrap my arms in your hair./ I'd love you forever if you'd let me./ I'd love you even though you don't care." And lyrics like this: "I'm so crazy for you I'd burn your house down."
• Everyone should listen to Claire Jenkins' new record because it's super great and fun and she makes great paper hats and because she said sweet things about my dog;
• New Danny Michel you say? Why yes! Did we buy it the day it came out you ask? Why yes! Is he still super handsome and dreamy? Why yes! Oh yeah, and the album's great too. Buy it. Buy it now.

happy birthday to me!!

Happy Me Day!  It's my birthday today on a sunny Sunday.  Last night Marc threw me a surprise party (full post and pictures to follow) and I was surprised.  He also fashioned me a record cake made with spice cake, black licorice, and black icing that dyed everyone's mouth black.  It was great!  Yay for surprise parties! Thanks to everyone that came and ate and drank, and drank, and drank.  I'll round up photos and do a detailed post I promise!  

Hope everyone has a Happy Tara's Birthday!!

anyone up for a lounge?

Ok, I just might have found my fantasy patio item for a patio I don't yet have. Let's for a moment look past the awful, awful fabric and instead focus on the supreme lounge-ability factor in this Victory Garden Orbit Lounge from Zeller's of all places! Little lounge action with the hubby, little side table action for a tasty umbrella drink, room for a puppy or two -- I might live on this thing. Not to mention handy if you get the vapours. And it's $350! That's completely possible...