Freedom!

I just deleted my facebook account!

Devil's Night

Last year, my Hallowe'en was completely ruined by the onset of what I assume was food poisoning about an hour before I was supposed to head out of the house. When I tell people that my Hallowe'en last year sucked because I got sick, most assume that I just got wasted, when the fact of the matter is that before I even got a chance to put on my costume I was puking my guts out. This continued at least once every hour until about 6am. I have never felt so awful.

This year's Hallowe'en is already off to a much better start, as I just got back from a really nice show over at the lovely Flood Haus.

There were some great costumes...

Ryley as a marine iguana (in love?)

Travis is Steve, Steve is Travis!

Uh, please trust me that this is hilarious!

(and sort of brings up conflicting feelings in me!)

Beyon is a jackalope.

Not pictured: adorable fluffy tail.

Also not pictured is my last minute costume idea of being a "fuckin' hippie". I essentially just wore everything I've ever purchased at the Black Market, dumped a bunch of patchouli on my dreads, and made a few festival wristbands out of paper (Evolve, Burning Man, Shambhala). I also carried around my hula hoop, which was a little annoying. (true to the spirit of my costume, I guess). Blessings!

Everyone who played was super great, and super attractive.

Here's the proof:

Taylor (as John Lennon)

Taylor has a really beautiful heart (and I'm not just saying this because I'm wearing a hemp skirt and a bunch of Tibetan jewelry and smell like I did when I was 16) and it really shows through his music. I love it when people are able to write powerful lyrics and have technically impressive music to back it up. Tay gets really nervous when he plays, but he'd better get over it because he's amazing and I know he's got a lot of shows in his future.

Travesty (as Steve Believe)

I love this boy to death. Best banjo player I know, and he's so passionate about music. He's also one of my favorite people to photograph, partly because he's adorable/has a great aesthetic, and partly because of how much he emotes when he's playing music. He plays a lot of sad songs, but they're so so beautiful.

Whimsy & Spite.

Kelly (as a GNARwhal)

Sunny (as Hunter S. Thompson)

Steve Believe (as Travesty International)

Sorry for the blurry photos. It's bound to happen if I'm taking pictures of people moving quickly in a dimly lit room with my shitty camera. Oh well?

Kelly and Sunny are my room mates, which rules because it means I get to hear Kelly practicing all the time, and I'm usually one of the first people to hear her new songs. Her music is usually cute, and bittersweet. She uses really silly imagery to get across pretty important subjects like sexism, loneliness, death, etc. Hamsters and ducks, whales and chickens, broken hearts and polluted harbours. She used to have a cello accompany her, but I like this new line up a lot as well. (I wish I had better pictures of Sunny's costume, it was so perfect! Also Kelly's which was mostly a trucker hat that said "GNAR" on it, with a giant white tusk sticking off of it)

Steve Believe & the Emotionally Crippled Narcissists

Jawsh (as Mark David Chapman)

Matt (as Ash/Bruce Campbell)

and also Tay is in there playing bass somewhere

Steve claims to hate folk punk, but you know what? He still plays the acoustic guitar and hitchhikes and has a dreaded rat tail. I haven't heard any nineties emo songs about any of that!

But seriously, Steve is awesome. His songs are super raw and come straight from his gut to kick you straight in yours. He usually plays solo, but I can only imagine how great it must feel to have all your best friends help you bare your soul to a room half filled with strangers (not that the room was half-full, but that at least half the people there were also friends with Steve. It's kind of hard not to be friends with Steve, he's a sweetheart.)

Snail Party

Mogli (as a unicorn)

Beyon (jackalope)

Ryley (marine iguana)

Will (beer sloth)

Feather (fox)

Caitlin (Hammerhead shark)

The ever-amazing Snail Party finished off the night. Always a good time! They played a couple covers, some really gorgeous originals, and ended up showering the crowd in tiny chocolate bars. This band has such great chemistry! Mogli and Beyon have such powerful voices, and they blend together so well. Apparently these folks are saving up to buy a van, so if you don't live in Halifax then get ready to check them out when they tour near you.

Now I'm fucking exhausted, mostly because this internet connection is so slow that it's taken hours to upload all these pictures. Auggh. Tomorrow means pancakes at Food Not Bombs and handing out candy at night with Ryley.

A strange coincidence

Tonight I texted the words "Kick her out" to two different people.

Weird.

plus one

And because Cory is both a whiny baby, and extensively good-looking, here's a photo of him where is face isn't getting smushed.

There's something in the water

I just wasted the last hour or so browsing a tumblr called PUNKS I'D LIKE TO FUCK (emphasis theirs), and it just made me think about how beautiful my friends are. Like, the individuals I see every day are way more gorgeous than anyone I saw on there (except for the 3 punks I saw on there that I know).

Just thought I'd point it out.

and sometimes I feel okay about the way I look

Jiggity Jig

I'm home I'm home I'm home I'm home!

Ever since I was a kid, I've never been able to spend more than a couple of weeks away from this city without getting super duper homesick. It's weird, I love to travel, but this city is so comfortable and welcoming to me.

I was super close to spending this rainy day lounging around, taking a day to get back into Halifax mode, but honestly I can't afford to do that. I love my home and my friends and my family and my cat, and none of them are going to benefit unless I get off my ass and get a job.

Ok, so I did lounge around a little today in the guise of a 4 hour chess & coffee date (swoon). Whatever, I think it was productive! Apparently I can play chess? Weird!

It was also beneficial since all the resumes I have printed off are in my closet (buried under everything I own), which for the moment is still sub-let, so since I was already downtown I was able to print off some shiny fresh resumes at the library.

I handed out 4, and I've already got an interview set up for tomorrow! It may be at a super bourgeois crepe restaurant, currently gentrifucking an amazing North End neighborhood, but it's something. Also, it's potentially a position as a line cook, which would be some super awesome experience.

I also applied at an Indian take-out place, and for some reason I reeeeally want them to call me. Is that weird? There's just something so comforting about the idea of spending the winter up to my elbows in curry.

Wednesdays are pretty great

I'm still kind of reeling from my shitty past few days, but I'm definitely feeling better.

I had a really beautiful moment today of rolling across the commons on a long board, cuddled up to a newly purchased batch of wort. Ryley and I transport many things across the city on long boards (beer, guitar amps, our punk rock selves) and there's something about it that just feels kind of cute and honest. Now I'm sitting at the kitchen table with my room mates, a packet of liquid yeast stuffed down the front of my overalls (so it activates faster), listening to sad songs and waiting to go to band practice. It's nice.

I hope this beautiful weather keeps up, as I'm hitting the road tomorrow. I'm going to be away from Halifax for the next month, getting some traveling in before the snow and making some money in Ontario so I can put off getting a job for just a little bit longer.

fuck mondays

Sticking around in a crowded house, with my rapist in the next room, so that I could play some out-of-tune songs with my drunk and aggressive room mate and then carrying my guitar home in the rain was not actually how I had wanted to spend my evening.

Nowhere is safe anymore. And no one cares anymore.

Punx tour the Island

We (The Official Suckers) played a show in PEI with Kit Wilson-Yang and our good friends Story and Cud. Our buddies Mogli and Steve Believe came along, and a damn good time was had!

I really, really love the ferry. We played bananagrams (not pictured) and stood around in the wind, watching the red dirt get closer and closer.

My friends are absolutely gorgeous.

Even Mogli, even when she makes the above facial expression.

Story.

Cud Eastbound

The show was a lot of fun. It was at a bar I've been to before, and they were kind of pricey but it didn't matter since I wasn't drinking anyway. Folks seemed to enjoy us, and they REALLY enjoyed Kit's set! An encore was demanded!
It was a good end to the little tour. We dumpstered some doughnuts (did you know that in PEI, the Tim Horten's have completely separate green bins to put their coffee grounds in so that you don't get doughnuts covered in coffee? GENIUS! Also, I wonder if there are any people reading this who don't know what this means at all....), I got to drive the van back to Story and Cud's cabin in the woods, and we drank tea by lamplight, shared stories and went to bed.I tell ya, every time I go to the Land, I wake up in the middle of the night and I'm either cold or I have to pee or both. The fire has usually gone out, and I'm not one to get up in the pitch black and head out into coyote country to find to the outhouse, so I usually just try to sleep it off, but I almost always end up just rolling around uncomfortably until daylight.

Story and Cud have hens! I'm super jealous! They're all round and fat and make the most ridiculous noises. They smelled terrible and none of them laid while I was there, but I still thought they were cool as heck. I wanted to pick one up and squeeze them.