Author: Joey deVilla

Categories
It Happened to Me Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

The Further Adventures of the Swing Formerly Known as Secret

I’ll be damned: MuchMusic just called me, asking for the location of the Secret Swing.

VJ Jennifer Hollett (whom I met during my 2002 and 2003 appearances on the live afternoon show
MuchOnDemand) placed the call; she thought it would be a great place to
conduct a band interview.

The Secret Swing is a perfect place for interviews — I can see rock,
indie, punk and hip-hop bands jumping at the chance to answer questions
and try out the swing. It’s also located quite conveniently: a
five-minute drive from the MuchMusic studios. I’m also sure that sooner
or later, someone’s
going to shoot a music video there (I see Hawksley Workman crooning and
swinging there).

I can draw two conclusions:

  • The Secret Swing ain’t so secret now.
  • My whuffie must be going up; a major video network called me for intel!
Categories
It Happened to Me

Odd and Somewhat Disturbing Photo of the Day

Here’s Scott drinking beer — hardcore robot doggy style!

We really have to stop serving malt liquor at the Tucows annual picnic.

Categories
Music

Stuff from really cool Blogware blogs, part 1: Suw Charman breaks the news about Shatner covering Pulp!

Suw (who used to be “Sue” until a misprint in an academic paper transformed her name forever) Charman, one of the regulars on the #joiito IRC channel, points to this report that one of my musical idols, Ben Folds, is collaborating on an album with The Original Starfleet Captain, William Shatner, on a new album, titled Has Been. A substantial snippet of his cover of Pulp’s late-nineties hit, Common People, is available online [QuickTime link]. It’s awesome: Shatner does the verses in his trademark Shatnerian reading, with Joe Jackson doing the vocal wailing for the chorus, and surprisingly, it works.

I will buy this album the day it comes out.

Special message to Wil Wheaton: Are
you just gonna sit there? What say you and I collaborate? I’ll play
accordion, you sing or recite, and I thought we’d do an awesome cover
of Army by
Ben Folds (or whatever song you think would work well for us). I’ll bet
we could raise the funds for a recording session via our blogs and
PayPal. Whaddaya think?

For more stuff from Suw, be sure to check out her Blogware-powered blog, Chocolate and Vodka, at http://chocnvodka.blogware.com.

Categories
Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

The Saga of the Secret Swing Continues!

BoingBoing links to Chris’ blog entry about the Secret Swing, in which he — presumably after reading BoingBoing, who found out from me, who found out from Rannie
— and two friends give the swing a try. Chris wisely does what I did:
put an attractive young lady on the swing and take pictures.

In case you’re visiting Toronto, the alleyway in which you’ll find the
swing is just south of Queen Street West and runs parallel to it. Its
west end is at Bathurst and its easternmost terminus is at Spadina (just a couple of blocks south of my house); the swing is in an alcove in the north wall of the stretch between Denison and Spadina.

Categories
It Happened to Me

A Day in the Life

Sometimes Scott and I have these conversations that end up sounding like this police scanner chatter:

Make sure you the read the whole comic.

(I am sooooo car 15, dude.)

Categories
In the News

Today’s Oddball News Items

Categories
It Happened to Me Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Scott Murff IS Dick Starbuck!

Here’s my friend and co-worker Scott Murff
(he’s in the Research and Innovation department with me) posing in the grafitti alley south of Queen Street, posing beside
the grafitti that speaks to him the most:


He’s a complicated man, and no one understands him but Boss Ross…