Category: It Happened to Me

Categories
It Happened to Me

Congrats, Rannie!

The competition was pretty stiff, but in the end, the 2005 Weblog

Awards declared Rannie Turingan’s Photojunkie the Best Canadian Blog of

2005. Congratulations on your second win, Rannie! (He also won in 2003.)

I’d like to offer a hearty congratulations to the other nominees for the Best Canadian Blog title:

Another local blogger, Sam from Daily Dose of Imagery, also got a nomination for Best Photography of a Weblog and won. Congrats, Sam!

I got a chance to catch up with most of the nominees on Saturday at a

gathering that Rannie threw for the nominees for Best Canadian Weblog

(Kelly couldn’t make it). It was possible because this year’s nominees

were all from the Greater Accordion City Area. It was fun, and Kim has a writeup of what happened at Bacon and Eh’s — mine will appear later.

I’d also like to thank all those readers who nominated me both this year and last year. You’re the best.

And hey, I think I’ve got a good shot for the Lifetime Acheivement award next year…

Categories
It Happened to Me

"Mummy, I’m Naked in my UML Place!"

If:

  • You are a former OpenCola employee of the first generation (the

    generation who worked at the original office at Bloor and Church

    Streets)

  • The title of this article has any meaning to you

…then

you might want to contact me. I have the videos, and they’re still just

as funny and disturbing as they were four years ago. I have never been

able to read about the Unified Markup Language without almost bursting into laughter ever since (an amazing thing, since UML is decidedly un-funny).

The videos are courtesy the greatest Roshambo player on Earth.

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

What a Sordid Clientele We Were

For no reason at all (well, perhaps it was inspired by his inviting me to open for his show next Friday), here’s a photo of Scott Watkins enjoying his favourite magazine at Tequila Bookworm, circa 1999:

Photo: Scott Watkins throws the camera a beady-eyed look as he reads 'Cosmo' at Tequila Bookworm. Taken April 1999.

Categories
It Happened to Me

Some More Stats

Since November 10, 2001, when I started The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century, I:

  • Used 2 blogging platforms (I started with Blogger, and now use Blogware, which is produced by the firm for which I work, Tucows)
  • Have 43 photo albums with a total of 1328 photos
  • Got 1025 trackbacks
  • Received 3909 comments (not including those I deleted or those on the commenting system from when I used Blogger)
  • Posted 3739 articles (not counting this one)

That last number surprised me; if you asked me to estimate the

number of blog articles I’d published, I would have put it at around

2000 posts, not almost 4000.

Categories
It Happened to Me Music

Drivin’ Music

In January 1992, my friend Henry and I decided that we’d do something different for our drive back to Crazy Go Nuts University. We would listen to only one song: Ministry’s then-new single, Jesus Built My Hotrod [Windows media sample / RealPlayer sample].

If you’re not familiar with the number, it’s a giant thrash-rock

wall-of-guitar noisefest fronted by the distorted vocals of guest

singer Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers. I think we managed to

listen to it for about an hour (or 10 plays) before we decided “okay,

enough”.

Here’s a man who took on an even bigger challenge: he managed to drive from Iowa City to Chicago to visit his girlfriend, and he chose to listen to only one song — ABBA’s Dancing Queen. Eeee-yow.

Categories
Accordion, Instrument of the Gods It Happened to Me Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Back to the Stage (or: Peril from Beyond Space!)

I met Scott Watkins in 1999 at the Queen Street West cafe Tequila

Bookworm, where we were not just regulars, but friends with the staff

(in my case, very special friends with one of the staff. albeit disastrously).

A couple of years later, he invited me to play accordion to accompany

his improv troupe on days when the regular musical director couldn’t

make it. I performed at a handful of shows and had a blast doing it. I

got to perform and still have the best seat in the house at the same

time, and it’s always great to see Scott perform (you should see his

“Beat Poetry of Ricardo Montalban” routine).

Scott recently contacted me and asked if I’d do some music for his upcoming show, Peril From Beyond Space:

Photo: 'Peril from Beyond Space' poster.

The synopsis:

The year is 1947. The forces of democracy have triumphed. Millions of

Americans are raising families, buying refrigerators, and wearing

nearly identical suits. Now that fascism has been eradicated, Mr. and

Mrs. Average Homeowner can look forward to a bright new era of peace

and prosperity. Or can they? Little do they realize that a malevolent

alien race has targeted the planet earth – a race of demon monsters

that threatens every single person in the entire world…a Peril – from

Beyond Space!

Peril From Beyond Space is a

“comedy sci-fi cliffhanger in four parts” taking place for the next

four Fridays at 10 p.m.: March 11, 18, 25 and April 1 at the Bad Dog Theatre, 138 Danforth Avenue

(at Broadview). Four different musical/comedy acts will open each show,

with Yours Truly opening for the March 11th opening show! Tickets are

$8 at the door. I should be entertaining, and Scott and Company should

be even more so.

I suppose that means I should go work on my routine.

Categories
It Happened to Me

Jet

Funny airplane moment: just after boarding the flight to Boston, a girl

in the row behind me asked her father: “Where’d they get this tiny

little plane, Dad? eBay?”

Since I fly to Boston to see Wendy about once every six weeks (she does

the same, and overlapping our flights lets us see each other every

three weeks), I try and find the least expensive flight possible, which

is usually American Eagle, the wing of American Airlines that provides regional services. This past weekend’s flight, before taxes, was CDN$179 (CDN$279 after taxes).

American Eagle uses ERJ jets, manufactured by Brazil’s Embraer. I’m always kind of disappointed that Embraer Jets don’t automatically play Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66’s Mais Que Nada [Windows Media sample / RealPlayer sample] when you board, but that’s like wishing that Seattle-based Boeing’s jets played Seattle-based Sir Mixx-a-Lott’s Baby Got Back [Windows Media sample / RealPlayer sample] or Airbuses played Plastic Bertrand’s Ca Plane Pour Moi [Windows Media sample / RealPlayer sample].

(Get it? “Ca plane”? On a plane? Oh, never mind.)

This is actually a US Airways regional jet, but I

believe it’s an Embraer Regional Jet. I took this photo while flying to

DC in 2000.