Category: 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.

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.

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

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

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date March 4, 2005
3 Comments on 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:

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.

It Happened to Me

Jet

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date March 1, 2005
10 Comments on 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.

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

Accordion City Day, Part 3: X-Men in Accordion City!

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date February 25, 2005
No Comments on Accordion City Day, Part 3: X-Men in Accordion City!

While most things happen in New York City in the Marvel Universe (the milieu of most Marvel Comics), its superheroes often go to other cities. I’ve only recently read Wolverine/Doop (Wolverine’s the most popular X-Man, and Doop is a green mutant blob — kind of like Slimer from Ghostbusters — from the X-Men spinoff comic X-Statix), which takes place here in Accordion City — and features a lot of my local haunts in the backgrounds…

College Street West, Compressed. Note the locations: Cafe Diplomatico, The Orbit Room, the Royal Cinema, the Lava Lounge (which sadly, is closed as it’s being turned into a condo) and Dragon Lady Comics.

All are on College Street West, but not this close together — and the

street would have to run northwest/southeast for the financial district

building and the CN Tower to be visible. Still, it’s nifty seeing

places where I hang out depicted in an X-Men spinoff comic book.

Doop and Wolvie Racing Down the Annex. Featured in this Panel are Suspect Video and renowned comic book store The Beguiling.

That’s Ontario Place’s Cinesphere in the background.

I haven’t been to the Brunswick House since they remodelled and stopped being such a dive.

“Nooooooooooo-body!” You’d have to be from Toronto to get that joke. That’s former mayor (and a bit of a joke, at that) Mel Lastman. The proper honorific for the mayor here is “His Worship”, but we tended to refer to him as “His Washup”. And yes, CityTV is a local station (here’s its glowing write-up in Wired) a couple of blocks from my house.

Racing Down Spadina! The Silver Dollar Room is the home of a few of my misadventures and a couple of Meryle’s burlesque numbers. Remember Adventures in Babysitting — “Nobody leave dis place until dey sing dee blues?” That’s the Silver Dollar Room.