soulstorm

some of the very best moments of summer 2010. my first summer spent in ottawa, and just a little bit of everywhere else. enjoy.

first "official" day of summer, the day after I made my return from the great white west. wonderful day filled with beer and little italy and habs games and friends. also the day I met a most wonderful young man.

Fringe Festival 2010; too much to be said... what little arts community exists in ottawa congregates on ottawa university campus for a good two weeks, filling the city with theatre, music, dance, and magic. Maybe I'm just inexperienced, but this could only be described as one of the greatest and most memorable performances of my young life. great show, great place, great people. This is a shot from Wakefield, ON (population 12) where we trekked for 2 out of 10 nights to perform our blasphemy-drenched Durang masterpiece on the altar of a church for an eldery audience. How none of us burst in flames in the process is still a mystery to me.

A much needed visit home in June for birthdays and drinks with people I love. The above features said drinks with my favourite boys in the world (minus rory) one glorious poolside afternoon at dear Alex's. miss you guys!

Adam and I braved a mid-week trip to the cottage at the end of June; and herein lies just a slice of the result This is probably the most delicious breakfast I've had all summer. enough said.

you're walking in the sea of red and white when you stumble through a park and into a full-fledged K-OS concert. that is Canada day in the capital city. The above has to be my favourite picture from the entire day/night.

finally; Bluesfest '10. my first experience with this epic musical portrayal happened this july, and two days were well-spent immersed in rambunctious crowds and electric sound. Day one included a little bit of everything and 12 hours in your dancing shoes, beginning with my dear friends The Love Machine (above), followed by the epic dance parties of passion pit and the oh-so-beloved down with webster. As night fell we wandered to James Hunter for some much needed blues groovin. Day two (or, night two I suppose) was none other than Great Big Sea. and for that, there are simply no words.

There you have it, children. And, as much fun as I am having these past few lovely months, there are just a few things I would change....

I miss you guys more than you know ♥

gotime

OKAY.... it's time to switch gears.

From here on in, it's all things magic and money. because as much as it saddens me to say, in the next ten weeks, the amount of money made will determine the amount of magic experienced. to a degree anyways... it will certainly determine the level and quantity of such important commodities as oh, say, food, drink, bedsheets... and all those fun things necessary to sustain a person's existence. I guess I should explain;

That's right kids.... It's on.

Approximately 70 days from now, I will be touching down in Sydney Airport. Uh huh, that's Sydney AUSTRALIA. Six states, six hundred job opportunities and six million adventures await my arrival in that beautiful south-eastern land mass, and I think it's safe to say I've never been more ecstatic, optimistic, and terrified about anything in my young life thus far.

Despite my endless spouting of my apparent need for spontaneity and adventure and travel etc in my life, I've been more or less all talk in those areas. Especially considering my "need" for solo adventurism hasn't taken me further than weekends trips to various cottages and cabins and one very messy pre-graduation trip (we all remember Cayo '08, don't we? well, some of it...) and while that's all well and good and wonderful.. this is big. Bigger than big. Bigger than anything I've ever entertained or attempted in the past. Not only is this 8 months of more magic, beauty, and stories than I will know what to do with... but it is also 8 months of solitude from the people and places I have only known all my life, and grown to love more than anything.

hmm...

It's going to be a weird and wonderful winter.
and a strange and star-spangled spring.

aaaaand go.

we're off to see welfare

- $1.17.

now that's a new record. a new low, if you will...
but I suppose I better get used to living like a gypsy if the great and powerful AUZ trek goes down next year.

Did I say "if"? Oh, I meant when.
and did I say next year? I meant this fall.

THE MADNESS!
How I'm planning to buy a plane ticket and support myself across the planet on a steady diet of la senza cash is.... unclear. but regardless, my name is written in sand on those beaches. and who am I to ignore mother nature? that badass bitch has got some serious power.... and this year, she's telling me to skip winter.

It would just be rude to say no.

curbside prophecy

did you ever notice how everything just piles up at once?

when it rains it pours, the storm after calm waters. tidal waves of obligation. everything you want to accomplish and can't seem to handle rolled into one weekend. and you know there's nothing to follow but stillness... but as I stare down the barrel of the first of three potentially chaos-driven days - and nights - I can't help but think that this time, it might just be too much...

In the next few short days, I am nothing less than obligated to A) pack up a years worth of memories in one elongated evening; B) perform a months worth of rehearsals on four separate occasions; and C) learn four months worth of 2401A: philosophy of human communication in one desperate all-nighter for an inconveniently placed final....

and despite the chaos, I haven't been this excited for a single week in a very, long, time.
life is pretty fucking great right now.

you make the earth move

if you fall asleep down by the water,

baby I'll carry you all the way home.

you fall so easy, and fall so hard
when that kind of hurricane hits

when you can feel the winds melt

into a cyclone of flame and fever

just two thundering heartbeats
as lightning bolts ignite your veins

summer never seemed so spellbound.

take it away boys

~~~~

~~~~

blast from the curbside prophet past; I've said it before and I'll say it again... I've always been one to adapt rather than create. so here's a creation of someone else's creations. from exactly half a year and half a million pages ago.

I wanna dance with somebody
so take me out tonight

cause I'm gonna live forever
if you let me stand next to your fire
I like being submerged in your contradictions

I want you so bad
and you're always on my mind
It's aurora borealis' company that I'm tight with
we just met, so let's get off the hook
all alone, show me where to go

you really got a hold on me
and you set my soul on fire
bring me an angel flying from montgomery,
and a great day to be alive.
to meet with the geek, all you need is a heartbeat.

I gotta be startin something
cause I just wanna fly
open up the gates of the church, and let me out
I don't need no slow man,
so put your arms around me baby.

credits (in order) include; whitney , jesse lacy, irene cara, jimi, mr. a-z, beatles, phantom planet, jason again, spiral beach, the scarlett boys, she & him, everyone, bonnie raitt, travis t, jason once more, michael, crosby stills & nash, kings of leon, sugar ray ♥ ♥ ♥

tide's comin in

your eyes destroy me every time I think

that soul music train just doesn't end!
though this is a familiar kind of magic,
just reinvented.
for me to find.
and conquer.

I wish I could put it in writing...
but this good old war rages on.
chased by new formats and rocketmen,
the strings sing me sleep and throw me into the fireworks.

speechless, baby.