Wanna hear me make fun of my brother more?

Check out the travel blog.

Also, not bringing my digital camera with me is possibly my largest regret ever. I can visualize it, sitting there, on my desk. I really miss it.

(Oh yah, and if you are reading this, I quite possibly miss you too.)

Andrew's Apartment Blogumented

I'm staying at my brother's in Vancouver right now.










(Yes, this is a cross-stitched sparkly dragon. And it's framed, no less.)

Fuzzy Memories

This completely gratutitous picture of kittens is just to let you know I'm gone and I've left. And this time next week, I'll be hurtling through a steel tube over the Pacific Ocean.

I wonder if beards are popular in the Southern Hemisphere?

The Blogger's Choice Awards

On night two of NXNE, Adam and I looked less married couple, and more like superheroes. Superheroes with moisturizing and delicious cherry flavoured lip balm.

The whole weekend we had been trying to promote the NXNE "People's Choice Awards," where people could text in the name of their favourite band, and the band with the most votes at the end of the weekend would win $5000 and one of their songs turned into a tinny annoying ringtone that is only about 7 seconds long in length. (Which is why we were handing out the lipbalm- the instructions were printed on the lid.)

Over the course of the weekend, I met so many amazing bands that were probably deserving in one way or another of winning. Screw the People's Choice Awards. This is the "Jess Choice Awards."

Our first venue was Healey's, where we saw part of the Nods' (from Winnipeg) set. It sounded more or less like generic indie punk rock, but enjoyable nonetheless, with a edge of throwback to early 1960s pop. It was energetic, and definitely the answer to the "I'm getting ready to go out and really don't want to listen to pop or dance music" conundrum.

I also got the chance to chat with another group from Winnipeg, Tele.

And the award for drink of choice to get through three straight 14 hour working days goes to. . .Red Bull!

Adam I were an unstoppable force in distributing collateral (in non-marketing terms: getting rid of the atrocious lipbalm). Our tactic was to divide and conquer:

I was in charge of the male division.

And Adam used the Power of Australia to handle the ladies. We were a force to be reckoned with!

I had to overcome my intense fear of mascots for this photo opportunity. But my nerves were soothed when I discovered the guy underneath had a beard. This picture also gets the award for my favourite picture from the entire weekend.

Sam came to join us mid-way through the night.

And the award for the saddest thing I saw all weekend goes to. . .this photo.

At the El Mocambo, I started chatting up these guys, some of whom turned out to be members for a band I already throughly enjoy, Raising the Fawn.

Scott from Raising the Fawn gets two awards: one for best overall styling, the other for the best hockey conversation I had all weekend.

At the end of the night, Adam unzipped his bag to reveal all the Doritos he had stolen from our counterparts, the Doritos people. I imagine that somewhere, some Doritos employee has a bag full of cherry flavoured lip balm.

Day two- complete!

On Saturday morning, I arrived bright and early in Dundas Square to begin my 14-hour day. Since Adam and I were the first ones there, we were assigned the task of putting the labels on the Adidas shoe boxes, in accordance with the list of shoe sizes. I really enjoyed the huge note on the list about what a freak I am.

Okay. Maybe not as much of a freak as this guy.

At the tent, people were able to send text messages to the big screen in Dundas Square. I spent the first two hours moderating the text messages. However, when people weren't sending any in, I was allowed to essentially type whatever I wanted to appear on the screen.

And the award for the most drunk with power goes to. . . me!

Jessex stopped by to say hi.

The award for best performance I saw all weekend goes to Spiral Beach. These kids are apparently about 16-years-old, and they are definitely doing something that no one else really is right now. I like that.

The guys from Eldog and Jo Mango get the award for the nicest foreigner bands I met. Jo Mango's set was somewhat typical of what's going on in indie rock right now, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit.

The guys from Crush Luther and Cauterize get three awards. 1) For being collectively being the most attractive bands I talked to all weekend. Red Shag Carpet came in a close second for this award, especially after the guy from Red Shag brought me a water, but these guys won out because 2) they made me laugh. A lot. Which they also get an award for. 3) Finally, they get the award for being my new favourite people ever, because they filled up an entire suitcase with cherry flavoured lip balm. (They were sold on it after I pointed out that cherry flavoured petroleum product can be used on a variety of body parts, not just your lips.)

I really think that my supervisor will like this picture. (I submitted it with my reports.)

Adam gets an award for looking like a promotional male model.

This guy gets an award for being both a robot AND having a beard. (At one point in the day, I got in trouble for not being "fully branded" as illustrated by my outfit in this photo. Ugh.)

Ashley and Greg get an award for carrying a huge tupperware container of cookies through Dundas Square, and offering me one.

After I returned from Dundas Square at 8:20, I collapsed on the floor in a miserable heap. Being bubbly, energetic and acting slightly ditzy for nine hours straight had drained every ounce life force out of me. But it wasn't over. Because I was supposed to be at my next venue to meet Rod at 8:30.

By the time 10:30 last night rolled around, my body had developed an immunity to the energy drinks I had been consuming for the last 72 hours. With Rod's encouragment, I gave in a did a bad thing. The night was starting to look up: there was beer, the Oilers were winning the hockey game, and there was live music.

For whatever reason, I think I did my job better after that.

This picture is from the collection of "photos I didn't submit with my report for a very specific reason."

Our last venue was the Vatikan. This person gets an award for rhyming as well as Kriss Kross.

Congratulations to all the winners of the Jess Choice Awards! And although your prize isn't $5,000 and an annoying ringtone, it is something almost as good- cherry flavoured lip balm! Contact me and we'll arrange a drop off! (You could make a sculpture out of lip balm, have a party with a slip n'slide coated in lip balm. . .Really, the possibilities for lip balm are endless. It's hard for me to give up, but really, I think you all deserve it.)

Finally, the night was over. So what would you do after three 14-hour energy-draining work days in a row? Okay, now what would I do? I think the answer is obvious:

At 1 a.m. Scott and Alice rolled up in a cab, we shed our "fully branded" outfits, and we were on our way to 99 Sudbury. To see Mstrkrft. (Yes, again.)

And by see, I mean, dance outlandishly to.

At this point in the night, we were quite literally crazed, to quote Alice.

"I ran into some of the other people we were working with on the street," Alice told me at brunch this morning, "and we were crazed, really. We were sleep-deprived, wearing these matching team outfits, standing on the street, yelling loudly and just throwing lip balm at one another! We were out of control."

I think our dancing probably reflected it.

Things had stopped making sense.

I couldn't think clearly.

So I just kept dancing.

"When do you leave for your trip, Blog Jess?" Adam asked me the other night at dinner.

"This Wednesday. So, really soon."

A sad look came over Scott's face. He looked distraught. "But," he stuttered, worried, "who's going to blog us when you're gone?!"

It's good to know I'll be missed.

This is what 5 in the morning, with little to no food, a sunburn, multiple rye & cokes, no shower, and a cherry-smelling petroleum product fuelled weekend looks like.

Seriously though, guys, I have tons of lip balm left. If anyone has a hill and a slip n' slide, I think we should give it a go!