Category: It Happened to Me

Accordion, Instrument of the Gods It Happened to Me

Happy Birthday, Hector!

On Saturday, the Ginger Ninja and I attended my friend Hector Catre’s birthday bash. I met Hector about thirty years ago through his brother Nic, with whom I went to high school and played in a Billy Idol/Platinum Blonde cover band. Hector’s been around for all sorts of hijinks (including the Worst Date Ever), and I was more than happy to celebrate another trip around the sun with him. Happy birthday, Hector!

Joey deVilla playing accordion at Hector Catre’s birthday at the Rose and Crown, Yonge and Eglinton, Toronto.
Rule #1: Accordion + booze = fun.
Photo courtesy of Jodi Brown.

Joey deVilla playing accordion at Hector Catre’s birthday at the Rose and Crown, Yonge and Eglinton, Toronto.
I’m glad to see that people still remember AC/DC’s Big Balls.
Photo courtesy of Jodi Brown.

Joey deVilla playing accordion at Hector Catre’s birthday at the Rose and Crown, Yonge and Eglinton, Toronto.
“Any requests?”
Photo courtesy of Jodi Brown.

Joey deVilla playing accordion at Hector Catre’s birthday at the Rose and Crown, Yonge and Eglinton, Toronto.
Stone Temple Pilots’ Plush is an accordion song that doesn’t know it yet.
Photo courtesy of Jodi Brown.

Joey deVilla playing accordion at Hector Catre’s birthday at the Rose and Crown, Yonge and Eglinton, Toronto.
The people at the next table asked for some Smashing Pumpkins; I gave ’em Cherub Rock.
Photo courtesy of Jodi Brown.

Joey deVilla playing accordion at Hector Catre’s birthday at the Rose and Crown, Yonge and Eglinton, Toronto.
“Thank you! I’m here all night!”
Photo courtesy of Jodi Brown.

Joey deVilla enjoying a dark beer with Hector Catre
Me and Hector, enjoying the elixir of life.
Photo courtesy of Jodi Brown.

It Happened to Me

Bustin’ In

You’ve probably seen this type of door lock, common in older houses:

Door lock

They usually sport a switch that sets the lock into “automatic” mode; close the door and it automatically locks. These locks can cause problems, such as accidentally locking yourself outside. Apparently, if the switch breaks while set in “automatic”, not even the key will unlock it, as Dan, who works with me at TSOT, discovered two nights ago. Worse still, his landlord was out of the country and the locksmith was asking $400 to drill through the lock.

I live pretty close to Dan, so when he asked me to give him a hand getting into his place, I was happy to oblige. Luckily the house’s garage had a ladder, and after trying a couple of second-storey windows, we hit the jackpot:

Dan on a ladder, entering the second-story window of his place via the window

Our mission accomplished, Dan took me and the Ginger Ninja out for dinner by way of saying thanks. Glad to help, dude!

Accordion, Instrument of the Gods It Happened to Me

More Accordion Photos from Tom’s Birthday / Tom and Michele’s Housewarming

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date January 15, 2008
1 Comment on More Accordion Photos from Tom’s Birthday / Tom and Michele’s Housewarming

If you missed the first set of photos, they’re in this entry.

One More Accordion Convert…

I didn’t get a photo of Anneke trying out the accordion, but Michele did:

Click the photo to see it on its original Flickr page.
Photo courtesy of Michele Perras.

…and Me!

We can’t forget Yours Truly, pictured below in his Accordion Happy Place…

Click the photo to see it on its original Flickr page.
Photo courtesy of Michele Perras.

There are more photos in Michele’s photoset of the party.

Accordion, Instrument of the Gods It Happened to Me

Pictures of the Day

I attended Tom and Michele’s housewarming party on Saturday and took some pictures. Here are my favourites…

The “College Girl Dorm Room Poster” Shot

Tom did a little birthday dance number to entertain the crowd — first solo, then joined by Michele. It concluded with this smooch, which just cried out for the Robert Doisneau black-and-white treatment:

Tom Purves and Michele Perras in a post-dance smooch
Coming soon to an Imaginus poster sale near you!

Another Accordion Convert

I’m always happy to let a friend try on the accordion, and since Michele asked, I got these photos.

Michele Perras playing Joey deVilla
She hasn’t hit that moment of accordion transcendence yet…

Michele Perras playing Joey deVilla
…ah, there we go!

Geek It Happened to Me

Our “Space” Shoot

Last week, my friend Mark Askwith, a producer at Space — the Canadian sci-fi channel — dropped me a line asking if I’d like to talk about a couple of cool gadgets in a segment for HypaSpace, Space’s “geek news” program. It sounded like a fun idea, so I said I’d do it.

Mark and Space camera guy Darcy came over to the TSOT offices last Wednesday to do the shoot, which some of my co-workers starred in. The segment will air during the year-end installment of HypaSpace; I’ll post the broadcast date as soon as I found out when it is.

I took some photos during the shoot — they appear below.

Darcy the camera guy from Space
Darcy, the camera guy from Space. In this shot, he’s setting up his camera prior to the shoot.

Darcy films as Adam and Mariko play Wii Bowling
Strike! Darcy films a segment where my co-workers Mariko and Adam play a round of Wii Bowling.

Mark and Darcy watch as Adam and Mariko play Wii Bowling
Wii action. Mark and Darcy watch and Mariko and Adam bowl on the office Wii. Gotta love the perks in the place.

Darcy shoots as Alex demos his iPod Touch
“Music is where I’d like you to touch…” My co-worker Alex demos his iPod Touch as Darcy films.

Alex demos the iPod Touch as Darcy shoots and Mark watches
Alex is a hand model now! Mark watches as Darcy shoots an iPod Touch segment — I’ll do the voice-over.

Darcy the camera guy from Space
The “beauty shot”. Darcy gets a shot of the featured gadgets, using the office video game screen as the background.

[This article was cross-posted to Global Nerdy.]

It Happened to Me Work

El Zone Del Trabajo

For the curious, I’ve got a Flickr photoset showing my current workplace, TSOT’s temporary office (we’re moving to the permanent office in January).

Click the photo to see the whole photoset.

I’ll be updating it from time to time, so check it often!

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

Sign of the Day

I noticed something strange on a sign on Bloor Street, just west of Avenue Road:

Medical Directory sign on Bloor Street listing “Imagineering” as one of the services.
Note the services offered: “Imagineering”?

I read the sign: “Accupuncturist, cardiologist, dentist…imagineering? As in Disney ride engineer?” (Clearly Cory Doctorow has rubbed off on me.)

It turns out that Imagineering is also the name of a multimedia company. Ah well.