I’m pretty much just going to quickly promote the everloving heck out of some of the most talented people in the Toronto music scene that I know. And by “talented” I mean they don’t play any of that bullshit hipster shit where some kid just screams and sweats alot and is adored by equally sweaty and screamy fans who “mosh” by flailing around like retards.

I mean genuine musical talent. So here we go, in no particular order:

A Primitive Evolution

Just like the poster says – Brett, Stu, Dim, Steph. Hot bitches, tight pants. YOU NEED THIS MUSIC. The band got together shortly after Brett and Steph’s former band, Lye, went into retirement, and teamed up with Stu (known widely throughout Toronto for the Playdead clothing line) and Dim (from Darkside, the now defunct *tear* horror store that used to be on Queen St.) to see if they could create something better. Faster. Stronger. *million dollar man noise*

And they totally did it. Hard, heavy, sexy, and sometimes featuring super babes on stage known as the D.E.A.T.H. Girls (I was one once, it was super rad), A.P.E. has been playing non-stop all over the GTA and southern Ontario since they formed. They released their independently recorded first album at the end of last year. It’s delicious. They’re delicious. Om nom nom. LoveSexDeathRock.

Darlings of Chelsea

These guys are ASPLODING (yes, I said that on purpose.) all over the place. Even after recently departing with their lead singer, the guys played SXSW as a foursome (giggity) and tore shit up down south. They won Canadian Indie Music Week last year, with the ever-so-epic prize of playing in Ireland AND Spain. They’ll be leaving soon so you better get your ass to one of their shows…because I mean, who doesn’t love some good, solid rock n roll?

I’ve never had a bad time at a Darlings show. Their songs are fun, catchy, and fucking SOLID. every single one. Their 6 track EP is for sale, usually at their shows, so again, be sure to pick that shit up. Rad dudes, even radder music. You can’t NOT love their sound.

Mittenz

If you love cute things, acoustic jams, and silly stage antics, you’ll love Mittenz. Emily and Mary are roommates, BFFs, and my favourite acoustic duo EVAR. Their songs range from happy, clap-along, tunes, which often have substituted lyrics depending on the nights’ events, to slower, “omg-I’ve-so-been-there-waaah” heartfelt songs about love lost. They did a cover of “Telephone” (yes, by Lady Gaga) last night, and it ruled, true story. They play regularly at Rancho Relaxo, and never disappoint. They also jam outside a lot in warmer weather so hangouts are a must.

These bands are not only made up of some of the most awesome people I know, but they all have amazing talent at what they do. I think they deserve as much attention as other-worldly possible. If you really love good music, you really need to come see a show. And there will be many. So come hang out. I will be at all of them.

This post is also a glaring reminder of why I don’t write music reviews.

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I’m going to be doing this weekly. Every Wednesday. Just a bunch of random things I feel like telling the internet.

1. My first dentist appointment in 12 years was just made. Last time I went, I was under my dad’s insurance and thus didn’t have to pay for it. I only discovered recently that I can get a professional cleaning for $20 at a dental college. Woop.

2. I’ve discovered We Rule, a godawful addicting iPhone game that has already caused my hand to ache. If you have an iPhone, add me as your friend when you get the game! (lauraisbored is my username, how original.)

3. They’re redoing Robin Hood. I’m not sure how I feel about this.

4. The other day I sat outside at 10am, drank a french vanilla cappuccino, sat in my park, and generally enjoyed myself. It felt like bizarro day.

5. I get really, really annoyed when I see paid bloggers in the city post news that is days, if not weeks, old,  long after I’ve seen it and would have posted it. Seeing people get paid to be far behind on things makes unemployed people bitter and complain-y.

6. Have you seen Crying Wife? It’s hilarious and adorable.

7. I’m going to eat a McGangBang and document it before I throw up or die.

8. On Sunday I went to go see 100 Monkeys play at Tattoo Douche Parlour. Yes, that is Jackson Rathbone‘s band (if you forgot, he’s my fake boyfriend, tee-hee! <3). I was ridiculously impressed, they’re pretty damn awesome. Best part of the night was watching one of the dudes get completely accosted by a group of fat middle aged women yelling “AW JUST ONE PICTURE OKAY ONE MORE” and the look on his face was nothing short of “oh fuck HALP”. And of course the two obligatory groupie whores. Yawn.

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Toronto-born Corey Haim was found unresponsive late last night at his home in Burbank, CA.

We all know and love Corey from the movie “The Lost Boys“, his most popular role, and many other 80′s films including “Lucas“,”License To Drive“, and “Watchers“. Some may even remember him from that really terrible show (but you know you loved it anyway) “The Two Coreys” with his Corey-counterpart and fellow child star Corey Feldman that aired in 2007.

No official word yet on the cause of death, although KTLA is claiming drug overdose. Haim became known early this decade for being a general trainwreck but had claimed to be cleaned up and was excited to work again.

Hi, you’ve reached the Corey hot-line. $4.95 a minute. Here are some words that rhyme with Corey: Gory. Story. Allegory. Montessori.

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Yes, I know it’s 8:30am. I’ve sadly had my sleep clock turned around due to watching Battlestar Galactica (I’m surprised at how many people are like, “…BSG? WTF”…anyway) and weekend shenanigans.

I’ve spent the last few hours downloading, configuring, re-configuring, troubleshooting, swearing, eye-rolling, and lots of other -ings, in an attempt to obtain a satisfactory mobile application on which I can use wordpress. Obviously, I have failed. The standard WordPress app for iPhone is still (surprise) littered with bugs. And just doesn’t work. So I got rid of it.
Then, there’s the for-some-reason popular “WPtouch” plug-in for WordPress.
Fuck my life.
I’ve NEVER had to go through so many random tutorials, reading support forums for vague descriptions of “answers”, reconfiguring plug-ins I already had, having to download ones I didn’t, only to find out they actually break my site when combined and changed to the settings the plug-in is supposed to have. Now I’m all for trial and error, but after the ordeal I just had, I think the devs should have waited a bit before releasing this thing to the public.
Not a fan. It’s too “well it works for us so it should work for you too”. for me. Maybe another time.

So I ask you, bloggers with iPhones (that use WordPress)…is there an app out there that you use to post away from home? Help me out here.

Speaking of bloggers, I’m thinking about attending this thing called “Toronto Blog Stars”, which is a social media seminar. I know two out of the three speakers, Sean Ward and Raymi, and the third, Casie Stewart is someone I know I’d get along with. Plus it’ll be super fun! I like super fun.

Sean mentioned something to me yesterday about the infrequency of my blogging. Sadly I didn’t have an excuse. I guess I’m just boring lately. I’m pretty much unemployed, my camera is broken, and I sleep far too much for my own good. Maybe I’ll just write about the weird shit I hear outside my apartment. But I think I’ve been worrying far too much about the amount of content I have. My posts are pretty hefty. I’m sure they’d be much more frequent if I rambled on less about nothing for like five paragraphs and just tossed up a few things on a daily basis. I think I will try that from now on. Getting into the habit of it will be good. Having something to do is always a good thing. Yes?

I’d be really good at social marketing. Why the hell didn’t I take THAT in school?

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Like usual, I came across these while browsing a forum because I can’t sleep, and I had to share.
Even if you plan on boycotting this weekend by binge eating and drinking alone like I am, you should send a fellow LOSTie one of these, because they’re cute as hell.

The Jack and Hurley ones are my favourite. :3 

For those of you don’t watch Lost (wtf is WRONG with you!?), there always the default “best Valentine’s card ever”:

*If anyone gets laid because of this post, you so owe me.

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See, I try to think of myself as at least slightly mature. But then they had to go and open a goddamned Harry Potter theme park in Orlando, and well, I DON’T CARE I WANT TO LIVE THERE AND GO ON ALL THE RIDES AND HANG OUT IN HOGSMEADE AND AUGH.
It’s bad enough I haven’t been to Orlando since I was about 14 (the Back To The Future Ride was still at Universal Studios *tear*), but now they had to go and take the one thing that makes me feel like a giddy child and explode it into real life.

Oddly enough, every premiere I’ve attended, even the midnight showings, mostly consist of teenagers and twentysomethings. Dressed up or not dressed up, but all share the same amazement at this story. I can’t even explain why I like it so much. Of course you’ll get IRL trolls whining about, “it’s a KIDS’ BOOK, grownups shouldn’t be reading it!! You’re immature babies! *goes back to Mom’s basement, watches anime*”, but screw them. If we all did strictly “adult” things, the world would be a boring-as-fuck place.

This comic by XKCD is basically the best description of what I mean (also a favourite of mine.)

Now back to Potter. Like my shelf? I love my shelf. (and thank you IPWN for the picture.)

I’m going to list all the Harry Potter things I currently possess:
~ complete book set (adult hardcover, woo)
~ complete DVD set
~ “The Tales of Beetle The Bard” (Potterverse fairy tales)
~ “Fanstastic Beasts and Where To Find Them” & “Quiddtch Through The Ages” (Hogwarts School Books)
~ The Monster Book of Monsters plush
~ Talking Ron Weasley figurine (thanks to my friend at The Silver Snail XD)
~ First Edition Hogwarts Castle LEGO
~ Hogwarts school banner
~ Slytherin robe, tie, and crest; Ravenclaw tie and crest (I’m confused, okay)

Don’t be jealous, k. Also this is what I did for Halloween:

Yeah, I rule. I know.

So I guess this is just to inform you all that I plan on taking a trip down to The Sunshine State. And I’m going to be WAY more excited than those kids in the commerical I posted. Like, a billion times more.

*sidenote* Tony totally blogged my last entry. I’m famous!

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Well it’s almost 7am, so why not write an entry? Excellent.
I could make an excuse that I’ve been busy working, but…I haven’t. I haven’t been fully employed since July. And honestly? IT BLOWS. Of course I’ve been searching and applying relentlessly (I hate people who ask this. “No, I haven’t been looking, I LIKE being broke and not having any full-time employment prospects! It makes me happy, like bunnies happy! …dick.”)
I’ve had several interviews, even got HIRED once (thank you, Starbucks manager for your “error”…walked in first shift and apparently they “made a mistake” and couldn’t hire me anymore. I swear that happened) …sadly nothing has stuck.
I KNOW YOU PEOPLE HAVE MY RESUMES, MAKE WITH THE PHONE CALLS!
I’ve been making due with money saved and little side jobs. It’s not glamourous but it pays dem bills.

And on another “happy” note, I’ve been single since Nuit Blanche. (Wah.) This was the first boyfriend who I lived with, so naturally neither him or I took it well. It actually got pretty ugly several times, to the point where we’ve had to sever contact recently which I genuinely believe is needed sometimes. We loved eachother, but sadly failed at communication when it was deperately needed and realized we weren’t exactly happy in the end. I did something rather stupid that was the final nail in the coffin, and that was that. I guess that’s why I took it so hard, because I was mostly to blame. In the end, it was a year of my life that I’ll remember fondly…I still love and miss him something fierce, because I suck…but he deserves to be happy, even if it’s not with me (Ugh, that’s the most lamest stupid cliche thing to say, but it’s true). I don’t wish him any ill-will at all, though I admit there are times when I’ve definitely thought otherwise. I’m only human. Maybe one day we’ll cross paths again when we’re both more mature and have our respective shit together, and *gasp!* have a good time…and who knows, maybe eventually he’ll even fix the typo for my blog URL on his website.

One side effect of the breakup was my hesitant deletion of every single Sims game I own. Sims 2 with all the expansions, and Sims 3. In the 8 months that Dave lived here we both played an absurd amount. (Do you REALIZE how much custom content that is!? Like a billion.) I did it as some sort of therapeutic measure since I haven’t played at all since he moved out, and it was more or less our “thing”…not to mention, those games take up ALOT of space. Which brings me to my cool point. After all the games, custom content, and (while I was at it) any other rogue files I didn’t really need anymore were deleted, I ended up freeing FOURTEEN GIGABYTES (14GB for the laynerds) of HD space. That’s a bittersweet moment if there ever was one. I think…

And take note, people: Even if you trust the place where you’re partying, not everyone that walks in there is going to be trustworthy. Case in point: Two weeks ago I had my purse stolen. Literally picked up and taken out of a party I was attending at Playdead Mansion. Like any normal person would do, I freaked out, ran around like an idiot trying to find it, looked everywhere at least 5 times, and spent the cab ride home wondering “How in the fuck.”. Thankfully I don’t own any credit cards, so all I had to do was get a new bank card, health, and SIN cards which were all easily replaceable. Thankfully again, I had some cash at home so I went out and replaced some necessities (wallet, purse, basic makeup, etc). Two days later, I’m literally walking in the door, and I get a phone call from a number I don’t recognize.
Someone found my abandoned purse on the subway, with everything but the cash I had on me at the time still inside. My guess is when they discovered I had no credit cards, or really anything in there they could hock for cash, they ditched it on the TTC.
JOKES ON THEM FOR ROBBING THE POOR KID! Har har.

Last and final update: My mom got me an iPhone 3Gs for Christmas. It is IPWN, and it is the best thing ever. Here’s some random pictures because I like bragging.

Oh, yeah. I still hate winter as much as I ever did, my new space heater sucks, and it’s always cold as frig in here. Do not want.

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*I forgot to publish this on October 28, So you get it now.*

Ever hear of Ashley Madison? It’s like a dating site for people who want to have affairs.
Anyway.
I got an interview for a web design position and was asked to submit some work, and whoever had the best submissions between myself and the four others that were interviewed, got the job.
Alot of people told me that was kind of sketchy – and while I agreed, what did I have to lose, right?
So here’s some of the stuff I submitted:

Anyway. Didn’t get the job, since they wanted someone with more Flash experience (note to self: learn Flash.) But whatever.

So I go home, and WAIT OMG. The HR guy had my phyical portfolio. Which contains a few things that I have no digital copies of. I shoot over an email right away asking him if I can either come pick it up, or if he could kindly mail it to me.

2 weeks go by…nothing. I have another interview and I’d kind of like my portfolio back. I email him again, asking if he recieved my last message (durr) and reminding him that I gave him that portfolio with the pretense that he would return it once the people that needed to view it did so, and that it contained sole copies of a few things. Finally, I get a reply:

Hi Laura,

 Sorry for missing your earlier email. It may have found it’s way into my spam filter as my systems admin hardened the rules recently.

 Unfortunatly, I do not believe that we still have a copy of your portfolio. I may have purged the files post interviews. I’ll take a look to see whether they are still at the office. I will get back to you shortly.

 Thanks,

Douchehole HR Guy

Aaaaand guy threw out my portfolio. INTO THE GARBAGE. TO BE GONE FOREVER.

Yeah, he never got back to me, as I assumed such. So I lost some work I will never be able to show employers ever again.

There is a special circle in hell reserved for people like you, Douchehole HR Guy.

Also you might notice I took down the design section. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with that/my actual portfolio which sucks horribly and is outdated as heck… it’s really frustrating to show people something that hasn’t been updated in forever due to feelancing being a pain in the ass…that, and…I’m lazy.

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