I Ninja Turtled a nose in class today! It makes me a little sad because it reminds me that Teenage Mutant Ninja Noses has closed, but it makes me happy because I often see little Ninja Turtles on people’s faces when I talk to them in real life.

“And stay away from drugs… other than pot.”

There’s nothing like it when talented filmmakers also turn out to be huge fans of games, comics and other geekia. This short film based on Portal is so awesome, it reminds me what a brilliant game it is. I wish I had a mouse with me at the moment just so I could play it right now.

While I’m not nearly as prolific at the moment as I once was — looking clear past Bobbyisms, the music blog I post to every day — I still feel this deserves a bit of celebration.

I confess, I only made the move to WordPress in June of 2007, in concordance with my move to London. I changed up the image of the site a bit while making the transition to life in London — I subtitled it ‘My Life In London Towne’ for a full year after migrating over from Blogger.com.

But the truth? The first handful of entries on here were originally written as blogs on Myspace.com. They’ve migrated multiple times and don’t look good or make much sense, but they’re easy to find. If you look closely, a lot of things have changed here over time; I’ve focused at times on things going on in my life, I’ve written countless words on embarrassingly personal things that I shouldn’t have, I’ve shared photos and stories as my daughter grew from a toddler to a beautiful girl.

The random content of the site has only ever been me trying to express thoughts and feelings out at a given time, and it’s wild to go back and look at — I had a meltdown in there somewhere, it’s unbelievable. But there’s always been music, always been music.

So I don’t know. Happy birthday to me, I’m glad that I’ve had this site for so long, it’s been a hell of a journey.

Sarah was probably three images shorter than Erica and possibly younger, but she kept scooping Erica up Superman-style and carrying her around. As someone who spent the evening before carrying Erica around the University of Toronto campus because her cute new shoes hurt her heels, I was naturally impressed by the feat of strength. Incredible.

Anyway, they’re running around, playing soccer and shaking raindrops off of tree branches and assorted other awesomeness, and they run by, faces serious as if on a mission — which they may have been, since Erica seemed to have stepped forward as the leader as I heard her exclaim, “…oh, I know him. I can put him on Facebook. Let’s go!”

I guess what I am is impressed, since it seems as though Facebook has become such a part of our culture that kids include it in their imaginary adventures as though it were gravity, although there is loads of fun to be had if you ditch gravity from imagination. Like when you’re playing superheroes with your friends and you’re Spider-man in space… right? You know.

Barbecues are awesome.

Coldplay, “The Scientist”

My daughter is in Vancouver visiting family. When she was a baby, before CD singles had completely died out, I owned The Scientist and would play it for her when it was time for her to sleep; I would rock her in the dark, singing softly along as she drifted off.

I know it’s meant to be some hauntingly romantic song, but in truth, the only love I can think of as eternal as those in the song is the love that parents have for their children. I remember listening and feeling like I was hearing all the words in a completely new perspective.

She’s close to eight years old now. I’m sure she doesn’t remember the song, but I do, and I miss her then like I miss her now, all the way across the country.

Looking forward a handful of days to Osheaga Festival de Musique et Arts in Montréal, I’m again beginning to buzz over as I make my plans. I’ve never been to Montréal! Will they be mean to me because I remember little to no français from school? I attended a purely French–speaking school until grade 3, and I was a terrible student. I remember the shock of the transition as my parents allowed me to transfer to an English school, and suddenly becoming a bright and gifted student. Quelle surprise! But I digress.

One of the best moments of the NXNE experience for me was getting into the secret show Stars performed at the Edward Day gallery out near Parkdale on Queen St W on the Saturday morning. See, I did the scavenger hunt and fought through the throngs at their gig at Yonge–Dundas Square the night before, but I do have one confession.

See, though I wasn’t there as media, I did have two aces up my sleeve: my NXNE media access pass and a brilliant writer/photographer friend who was there with media access. So the moment I entered, I put on my pass, brandished my camera and joined him… and no one was any the wiser.

So there we stood, perched on the stairs to the bands’ personal space backstage while everyone else milled in tightly to watch Chad VanGaalen perform an eccentric solo set before Stars came out to take the stage. He and I transitioned into the small side–stage area, though, and by association I got to experience the Montréal icons perform from a few feet to their right, photographing along the way.

I got away with it, and of course I raised no trouble. However I admit I’m somewhat concerned that I’m karmically due for a comeuppance as I prepare to head to Montréal after receiving a blessing of a concert experience I didn’t deserve. I worry about things like that.

Stars were brilliant, by the way. Read my account of the experience on the Interrobang website, and my mate’s tales of his adventures covering the NXNE festival on behalf of Consequence Of Sound. It’s good stuff.

Which I have; I’m sitting in a Starbucks in Leslieville, Queen St E in Toronto. I’m trying to write, only I guess I’m not cut from the same cloth as the other laptop–bearers kicking it around me. Something about the Cuban–fusion music being just a bit too loud? Perhaps it’s more the idea that a change of scene doesn’t exactly invoke creativity.

I like watching people in public. I always have, only when I was in high school I was observing them in order to draw them, making little sketches more akin to geometric compositions than to human forms… but I still felt as though we were engaging somehow. Now I just see them walking back and forth — accompanied by baby strollers, yoga bags, stepping into the rightmost lane of traffic to scour for a streetcar. If I’m here all the way from London, what about them? How far have they been walking their dog? Where is the streetcar going to take them?

I’m glad I don’t have to write novels for a living. I envy those writers the creative strength they must possess to do so, but I’m glad that school begins in another eight weeks or so, glad to be getting back into a groove that sees me writing about music and returning to my comfort zone while I return to my studies and struggle creatively in a different arena.

Sometimes I think it’s all about the struggle.

Loom, “For Elan”

The group at Humble Empire obviously have good taste in music, because it seems like they were at a bunch of the same shows that I was. Take the Nevado Records showcase at The Rivoli on Wednesday June 15; I was there to enjoy Loom (aka Brooke Manning), Megan Bonnell (whom I also saw at Bellwoods on Sunday June 19), and The Meligrove Band before bouncing over to the Horseshoe Tavern to take in some of the M For Montréal slash ExploreMusic showcase featuring Red Mass and Parlovr.

It’s a technique I employed for three nights at NXNE; on Wednesday, it was the great Rivoli/Horseshoe Bounceoff. Other nights featured Bounceoffs centered around the El Mocambo at College and Spadina — Thursday was the Silver Dollar/El Mocambo Bounceoff. Saturday it was El Mocambo/Comfort Zone.

Anyway, while at The Rivoli I took some video of the event, but in fact recorded the same song that the Humble Empire crew did. And, since their version is much better, we need never speak of my humble camera-phone recording again.