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

A Scene from the Podcaster Gathering

Last night’s podcaster gathering — see this entry and this entry in Boss Ross’ blog for details — was a rip-roaring success, with

considerably more attendees than we expected, good conversation and a

fair bit of drinking (as we used to sau at Crazy Go Nuts University: “If you’re not wasted, the night is!”). A filet mignon on a flaming sword to all who came!

I shot a video of the festivities [8MB, QuickTime] for you to see what you missed, even if you were there!

Screen capture: A still from the video I shot of last night's podcaster gathering in Toronto.

Boss Ross and David Janes (one of the hardest working men in software business). Click the picture to see the video.

(By the bye, if you’re looking for a new cocktail, may I suggest one

that David Janes recommends: the Yellow Menace, consisting of Smirnoff

Ice and a shot of tequila.)

Categories
It Happened to Me

Lovely Weekend

I had a lovely weekend with Wendy — hanging out with Wendy’s friends on Friday night, going to Rachel Barenblat’s and Ethan Zuckerman’s gorgeous house in the Berkshires

on Saturday and dinner at Wendy’s parents’ house on Sunday (where I

gorged on Wendy’s mom’s delicious coffee cake, for which I must atone

at the gym this evening.)

Details later. Hope your weekend was just as fun!

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

Scenes from "Girlesque"

A couple of Friday nights ago, I attended Girlesque, yet another local burlesque/vaudeville show hosted by my friend, Mysterion the Mind Reader. Here are some photos from the event (they’re all safe for work):

Dancer at 'Girlesque' burlesque/vaudeville show, April 1 2005, Toronto.


Ah, the dance of the seven veils!

Dancer at 'Girlesque' burlesque/vaudeville show, April 1 2005, Toronto.

You can see video of the dance here [4.8MB, QuickTime].


Mysterion's 'PK touch' trick at 'Girlesque' burlesque/vaudeville show, April 1 2005, Toronto.

This poor goth was a bit freaked out by Mysterion’s “PK (psychokinetic)

Touch” trick in which he touches her back while standing across the

stage.


Dancer at 'Girlesque' burlesque/vaudeville show, April 1 2005, Toronto.


Mysterion was one of the finalists for a contenst held by the local

alt-rock radio station to find Toronto’s biggest freak. One of the

other finalists, a burly fella by the name of Professor Orbax put on a great show. Here he is, shoving a power drill up his nose:

Orbax shoves a power drill up his nose at 'Girlesque' burlesque/vaudeville show, April 1 2005, Toronto.

Here’s Orbax, after havig been wrapped in Saran Wrap by a professional

dominatrix, announcing that he will now attempt to escape as

cross-dressin’ Chris holds the mic (yeah, we have a lot of odd people

here in Accordion City):

Orbax, having been wrapped in plastic wrap, proceeds to do his escape act at 'Girlesque' burlesque/vaudeville show, April 1 2005, Toronto.

I’ve got two video’s of Orbax’s escape from the Saran Wrap:

And finally, the stomach pump trick. Orbax first drank some yellow

liquid then used the pump (which fed a tube running up his nose and

then down his esophagus) to inject blue liquid into this stomach. He

then used the pump to extract the liquids from his stomach (now a

sickly green) to fill two glasses — one for him and one for Mysterion:

Orbax shows the stomach pump for his gastric act at 'Girlesque' burlesque/vaudeville show, April 1 2005, Toronto.

After the show, Mysterion came up to me, grabbed me by the lapels and screamed, “I drank some guy’s BILE, Joey!”

“Sounds like a typical Friday night for you, dude,” I said.


Dancer at 'Girlesque' burlesque/vaudeville show, April 1 2005, Toronto.


The show was punctuated with some classic vaudeville humor by the

comedian known to most people only as “The Wolfman”. He’s hilarious,

and he greeted me with a hug after the show. Wolfie, we have to do a

song-and-dance routine for the next show.

Mysterion and Wolfman do the 'chicken gag' at 'Girlesque' burlesque/vaudeville show, April 1 2005, Toronto.


Dancer at 'Girlesque' burlesque/vaudeville show, April 1 2005, Toronto.


Curtain call! Here are two photos of all the performers taking a bow.

Mysterion was extra-kind that evening: during curtain call he said “I’d

also like to thank Joey deVilla, the Accordion Guy, for attending

tonight — he’s in the audience, but we hope to have him onstage for

the next show. Give it up for Joey!”

Thanks, Mysterion, and yes, I’d love to perform at the next one!

Curtain call at 'Girlesque' burlesque/vaudeville show, April 1 2005, Toronto.

Curtain call at 'Girlesque'

  burlesque/vaudeville show, April 1 2005,

  Toronto.

Categories
It Happened to Me

Geek Gridlock (or: Appearing at Penguicon)

I’ve been invited as a “Nifty Guest” to Penguicon 3.0

(think of it as a Reese’s peanut butter convention where Linux and

science fiction collide in creamy geeky goodness), which takes

place April 22nd through 24th in Novi, Michigan. Major guests include

my friend and former employer Cory Doctorow; nifty guests include the one and only Eric S. Raymond.

My major presentation will take place on Sunday, April 24th and appears in the program as:

Interactive Fiction: Down and Out in the Grue Kingdom

2:00 to 3:00 pm

Joey deVilla

Interactive Fiction, also known as “IF” and formerly known as “text

adventure games”, has a history spanning over 30 years and thrives even

in this day of console games. If you are (or hope to be) a game

developer, an author, or both, join us as we show you how to develop IF

using the Inform programming language. We’ll implement a game/interactive story based on a scene from Cory Doctorow’s “Down and

Out in the Magic Kingdom”.

If you’re in the neighbourhood, c’mon down and say “hi” —

you might even decide that you’d like to write your own interactive

fiction games!

I looked at the schedule and initially thought “Hey, good,

no major draws away from my presentation” — Cory’s reading is from

1:00 to 1:30, and the big panel with Rob “CmdrTaco” Malda, Eric S.

Raymond and Nat Torkington is at 3:00. But then I saw it:

Jay Maynard and Fame in Fandom

2:00 to 3:00 pm

Jay Maynard

The Tron Guy! You saw him on the set of Jimmy Kimmel Live. Let him

talk about being famous and sought after! How can you become big man in

fandom? Come find out.

In the nerd world, that’s like having your band play the same night as Radiohead.

Photo: Jeff Maynard in his Tron costume.

Jay Maynard, the Tron Guy. Check out his site at www.tronguy.net.

Categories
It Happened to Me

This is What Daylight Savings Time Feels Like

Photo: Penguin about to wake up a polar bear with a pair of cymbals.

Categories
It Happened to Me Music

The Pink Wig Gig

I thought I’d post some more “crazy hair from my past” photos.


Before I was an accordion player, I played synths. I owned a number of synths and samplers through my years at Crazy Go Nuts University.

During my time there — September 1987 through December 1994, guitar

players were worshipped and synth guys were viewed with some suspicion.

It was a time bookended by the jingle-jangle of U2 and R.E.M. at the

beginning and grunge at the end. Being a small college town like

Athens, Georgia or Olympia, Washington, the guitar was also king in

Kingston, Ontario. Those damned plank-spankers, as I used to refer to

guitarists, got all the attention, love and respect, leaving we few

keyboard players — namely myself, my buddy Karl Mohr and

“Craigertronic” — in our own quiet musical backwater. My friend Sarah

English once wrote in a music review in the Queen’s Journal that she could never trust a band with a keyboard player in it.

This ghettoization made us synth players a closely-knit bunch, and we

often gigged together, even after graduation. For the April 1999 launch

party of his mother Merilyn Simond’s book, The Lion in the Room Next

Door, Karl invited me and another Kingston-based synth guy, Steve

Skratt, to be the entertainment. Along with our friend Chantal from a

gazillion Kingston bands as well as Rachel Smith and Krista “Lederhosen

Lucil” Muir, we formed the improv synth trip-hop band Lion.

On a lark, we decided that we’d all wear wigs for the gig. I went for

the “anime hair” look, but since Rachel had already claimed the blue

one, I had to take the pink. It didn’t look too bad…

Photo: Joey deVilla in pink wig.

The wig. Attention Mom, Dad and parents-in-law: I promise not to wear this at the wedding…much.

Photo: Keyboard section of the band 'Lion', featuring Karl Mohr, Steve Skratt and Joey deVilla.

Kraftwerk ain’t got nuthin’ on us!

From left to right: Karl Mohr (who’s switched from wig to fez), Steve

Skratt, me and Rachel Smith. I’m playing my Ensoniq EPS Sampler and

Roland MC-303 GrooveBox.

Photo: Keyboard section of the band 'Lion', featuring Karl Mohr, Steve Skratt and Joey deVilla.

Not all the instruments were synthetic…but our hair was!

Photo: Keyboard section of the band 'Lion', featuring Karl Mohr, Steve Skratt and Joey deVilla.

In the background: Rachel, Chantal and Krista, who also

played violin at the gig. Krista is now the Montreal indie pop darling

known to the world as Lederhosen Lucil.

Photo: Keyboard section of the band 'Lion', featuring Karl Mohr, Steve Skratt and Joey deVilla.

“More major sevenths! MORE MAJOR SEVENTHS!”

Categories
It Happened to Me

I Hope It’s Made with Free-Range Organic Pandas…

Seen at “Super 88 Grocery” the last time I was in Boston…