Last weekend recap

10: Number of Martinis made with stolen liquor
9: number of times I laughed at Joe Piscopo
8: number of studded belts at the party
7: Pairs of water wings
6: house number of the “new” Ross St. Party House
5: a house number that we will always hold dear in our hearts
4: times I threw up
3: times I almost passed out while blowing up inflatable palm tree
2: members of Sloan that kept us rocking to Foghat and Canned Heat until 3 am
1: Wizard of Rock

See Cat Lady Jess for further details.

Politics

I’m really glad that they (“they” being the television gods – gods like Jerry Bruckheimer and Aaron Spelling in his glory days) came up with the idea for the show “Brat Camp”. For those not-in-the-know, Brat Camp is the latest show riding the reality TV wave. The show is obviously a spin-off of my second favourite Jenny Jones (circa 1999) segment: My teen is a hoochie/My 8 year old beats me up/Problem Kids/etc. (This segment is second only to the “From geek to chic” episodes where the hideously nerdy/ugly kids came back years later to confront bullies and old crushes). The problem teen episodes always ended up with the teens spending a whole 2 hours at “boot camp” and they would come back miraculously reformed. Often in the follow up episodes said teens would have found Jesus or be pregnant – apparently Jesus can be found at juvie. Anyways, I’m really glad Brat Camp is gracing the TV airwaves. It’s like a full hour of Jenny’s boot camp every week.

Completely off topic but I want to call it before anyone else does: Bob Geldof will be nominated, if not win, the Nobel Peace Prize.



I say this not because I think he deserves it, but just because he is annoying enough for everyone to notice and no one can tell me that he didn’t have that in the back of his mind when he was saving the world through rock and roll. I just want to be able to say “I told you so” when it happens.

Furthermore, I will give "mad props" to anyone who can name one song by the Boomtown Rats OTHER than I Don't Like Mondays.

Community Service

My friends and I have started a charitable organization where we go around hugging retards. Today's lucky retard was Hunter.

EDIT: Is it still ok to say retard?

It Came From Beneath the Sea

This one time, Cat Lady Jess and I were almost eaten by sea monsters.

The smell of urine and cigarettes reminds me of Paris.

I’ve been home a week now and after dealing with jetlag and the residual gastro-intestinal effects of Scottish cooking, I am now back to what I consider normal.

Highlight of the week:
Seeing my best friends drunk

Lowlight of the week:
Getting in the way of their vomit

Back from Scotland and G8 Madness

I am back from Scotland and from the G8 summit. Am much too tired to write indepth post about it as there is just way too much to say and I am way too jetlagged. Here is a photo to tie you over until then as I know you are all DYING to hear about it (damn you internet and your inability to convey sarcasm).

Anyways, here are a few members of the research group with Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter Harder.



From left to right: Tony, Vanessa, Me, Jeremy, The Hon. Paul Martin, Peter Harder, Janel, Andrew, Chris and Phil.

Make Poverty History and Day One of the Summit

The G8 summit is well underway despite the fact the the G8 leaders haven't even landed in Scotland yet. Blair and Chirac are in locked in a staring match in Singapore given tomorrow's Olypmic announcement and Martin is in Ireland being "briefed" (read touring the Guinnes factory). I got up bright and early this morning and boarded the "high security" shuttle to travel to Gleneagles to begin my four day fiesta of research and analysis. Two hours, four security checkpoints, and one "metal perimeter ring" later, I got off at the Gleneagles Equestrian Centre to begin the days work. I won't get into the work as it will put you to sleep but I will tell you about the free swag: Free wireless mouse, USB keys, boring stuff, boring stuff, BOTTLES OF SCOTCH. We're not talking samplers here but full bottles of Johnny Walker Green Label. I love capitalism.

The media centre closed at 6 pm today (It commences 24 hour ops tomorrow) so I'm at the "Alternative Media Centre" in Edinburgh at the moment working on reports and analysis. The AMC as it is called is also headquarters for civil society and anarchist organizations and is located at some hippie run cafe. I am much too hairless to be in here but its free wireless.

Some pics from Saturdays Make Poverty History March (OK, I may be a filthy capitalist and I may not necessarily ideologically affiliate myself with some of the causes represented but I must say the sight of it was rather moving).

Making Poverty History:


Bob Geldof made us do it:


Edinburgh Castle (I think):


The G8 is an evil monster:


Who will make this garbage history?

Greetings From Edinburgh

On Friday I left this:

For this:

To see these guys:


I'm in Edinburgh at the moment on a research trip with the G8 Research Group at the University of Toronto, a group that I have been with for two years now. We are a group of about 20 students that get accredited to go to the G8 summit every year to write reports on issues that matter. It's all rather glamorous really, we are the youngest ones there and as such are not really taken seriously, but hey, it's the experience that counts.

I've been here since early (read ungodly hour of the morning early) Saturday morning and am taking in the civil society activities in the days leading up to the actual summit. I went on the Make Poverty History March on Saturday because Bob Geldof told me to, and just came from some anarchist carnival on the main drag where 150 protestors were stopped from smashing in The Gap and Starbucks by 300 riot cops on horses. I love democracy.

Updates and photos to follow.