With the Band

So, for fun, today is a music tee from a fictional band.

"Sex Bob-Omb" is the band Scott Pilgrim belongs to in the self-titled series and brought to life in the 2010 film adaptation Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, starring good Canadian boy, Michael Cera, as the title everyman-hero.

This is one of my swag trophies from Comic-Con 2010. Since the movie release was in August, the Scott Pilgrim vs The World street team was everywhere all the time in San Diego that July. I was even able to score both this babydoll fit and a red unisex for Jeff. Of course when we went to see the movie, wearing our shirts, there was something awkward about being the Asian girl in a Sex Bob-Omb shirt...

 
Bands and movies/television go together well in many circumstances and I find it interesting when a fictional world can spawn a real-life band. The Harry Potter franchise even spawned an entire genre of music called "Wrock" (or "Wizard Rock"). Real life bands that visit fictional settings - Barenaked Ladies on 90210 came to mind first for some reason - are also neat instances of this special kind of crossover. 

Cancer

So my own t-shirt collection proved me a liar today. Last week, at the Barenaked Ladies concert, I told the girl next to me (the one who had gestures to match the lyrics in the theme song for The Big Bang Theory) that I had seen the band perform live for the first time at the Juno Awards in 2008. I had forgotten that they had played at this benefit concert I attended in 2002. It was a heckuva a lineup that turned out in memory of the organizer's wife, who had lost her battle in 2001 and the night raised $1.5 million for the new cancer research centre in Vancouver.

Since Jeff and I got together, both of us have suffered losses in our life due to cancer. 

In my case, it was first a former vice-principal, Lorne Bodin, whose passing in January 2011 was not only a loss to his family, friends and colleagues but all the students he had taught and administered to over his far-too-short career. A lovely piece also ran in the Richmond News that captured nicely the emotion felt by those who knew Lorne, detailed some of the great things this good man had done in his life and outlines the legacy he left behind.

This summer, as I was seeing my friend Lesley and her daughter off to their train from Montreal to Kingston and preparing to catch a plane back to Vancouver, I was informed by my magic iPhone Facebook newsfeed that my friend Cheryl Hutcherson had also lost her battle. Standing on the train platform in the hot Quebec summer sun, I was chilled by the thought of a world without Cheryl's smile and laughter, her love for musical theatre emanating through every part of her life, her willingness to help and her always cheerful attitude to the world. She got me hooked on playing Farmville years ago (kicked the habit last New Year's) and I introduced her to the Dutch Wooden Shoe Cafe. Sadly, I was unable to attend her celebration of life, one that she had left detailed instructions for, because I was working that day but my thoughts were with her friends and family and my toe tapped a little, knowing that it would be a ceremony full of music and cheer.

In January 2012, Jeff's mentor and sensei, Les Nielsen, succumbed to cancer as well. Les was someone that everyone knew, in passing or in depth. He was the nephew of a more high-profile Les(lie) Nielsen who passed away of cancer a little more than a year before. A short and tender in memoriam was written by long-time Vancouver personality, Red Robinson, on his blog and Jeff and I decided when we were planning our wedding that we would like to donate the money earmarked for the groomsmen's boutonnieres to a cancer organization in his name. In addition, we would be taking donations at the ceremony to the cause as well.  

Which brings me to recent happenings: Yesterday, I got in contact with the BC Cancer Foundation by email and the Canadian Cancer Society by phone to find out how we would go about making the donation. Turns out that they are two very separate organizations. Who knew? We're not exactly sure yet how to decide where to donate or whether we should split the donation between the two agencies but hopefully we figure that out by springtime. It's hard to think about those who can't be there to share our day with us but we want to at least make the effort to share our day with their memory.

Another Stealth Music-T, Barenaked Edition

Fridays are tricky, it's turned out. Most school Pro-D Days are scheduled for Fridays so the blog tends to miss out on the Music T posts. Tomorrow, another Pro-D Day, is concert day for the Barenaked Ladies here in Vancouver, playing WITH the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at the beautiful Orpheum Theatre. Jeff's not a BNL fan (?!? I know, right?) but when we found out his best friend's wife bought tickets for THEM as part of an office event, he agreed to come and hang out.

Like many things I probably couldn't imagine my pop culture world without today - Buffy, C.S.I., Amanda Palmer - BNL was more my brother's thing than mine. Between the two of us, he tends to be the earlier adopter in the family and his youthful BNL fandom knew no bounds. There was a summer in Saskatoon when I got tickets for an outdoor, multi-band music festival where BNL was playing and sent my boyfriend at the time with Arthur as he was about... oh, twelve years old ... at the time. I had to work that day but I believe that they had a pretty good time. Arthur asked me later if I remembered The Simpsons episode "Homerpalooza" where they go to a Lollapalooza-inspired music festival and Lisa comments,"It smells like Otto's jacket!". My pre-teen little bro smiled at me when I said I did and declared proudly,"I know what she meant now!" Now that I think about it, he might've actually known that particular concert scent before I did too.

It's the quirky nature of memory that I cannot pinpoint when it was that I sent Arthur to that concert. Even Arthur's not sure exactly. He says that it was the year they released the "Born on a Pirate Ship" album so that dates it around 1996. And it goes to show that life before the Internet is truly the modern Dark Ages in that I cannot find a record anywhere online that the Barenaked Ladies played any concert festival in Saskatoon that summer or the next.

So for the fun of it, here's a video made a little over ten years ago where the boys of BNL pay tribute to the wonderful booth known as "Speakers Corner" where they brought their music and faces to the public for the first time ten years before THAT.

Wow, I'm feeling old now.

Music T Friday: When I'm Up I Can't Get Down

The universe conspires against me. Just when I make the conscious decision to really buckle down and become fiscally responsible (stop laughing, you), Barbra Streisand decides to perform in Vancouver for the first time EVER, Paul McCartney returns to perform for the first time since the Beatles played Empire Stadium in 1964, and Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, and Bob Dylan also book dates here. Leonard Cohen is scheduled to play here on November 12. And the Barenaked Ladies are playing with the VANCOUVER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA *sigh*

Vancouver is far from the no-fun city it once sported the reputation as. Nowadays, it's more like "no funds" city. Interestingly enough, the seat I had at the Streisand concert on Monday would've gone for $1500 in Toronto. Made me feel better for spending $100 on it. For the record, I passed on McCartney, Young and Cohen. And, yes, dammit, that's me being all mature and restrained and stuff.

Today's shirt is quite possibly my first Vancouver concert tee. It's definitely the oldest one still in my wardrobe and it's in fantastic nick for being AS OLD AS MY GRADE EIGHT STUDENTS. Yup, in fact, I bought this shirt on November 1st, 1999, at the Vogue Theatre, a fact that didn't occur to me when I picked it this morning. Happy buy-day, GBS "Turn" shirt! Sadly, the plaid PJ pants I bought at the same concert have been reduced to scraps years ago but they were gorgeous and comfy and served me well.

 

The b'ys from The Rock are celebrating their 20th anniversary next year and touring the continent with their "XX" album. They'll be at the swanky Orpheum Theatre here in Vancouver on March 10th next year. Of course, I bought my ticket already. One more seat at the wedding reception or a night with three fabulous Newfoundlanders? Pfft.

Like most of the musical acts that I follow, I appreciate that Great Big Sea has never lost that feeling of camaraderie and fun that made them so great to listen to when they first emerged on the scene. Furthermore, their salt-of-the-earth NewfoundLANDer personalities have never failed to strike a genuine note with their audiences. The b'ys have found individual as well as group success over the two decades and their fans are the first to flock to a solo show or tune in to a TV show to catch a cameo appearance. Pretty sure that Alan Doyle's stint on Republic of Doyle (no relation, haha) saw a ratings boost for those episodes. Mind you, Russell Crowe showing up might deserve some of the credit too...

To sign off on topic, enjoy a video of Alan, Sean, and Bob playing their unreleased single "Great Big World" in studio. 

 
And to sign off slightly off-topic, I've been edumicated recently on the existence of NaBloPoMo (National Blog Post Month), an homage offshoot of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). This was exciting news but, unfortunately, because I only write on school days and NaBloPoMo requires you blog everyday for the month of November, I don't think I technically qualify. I've sent a note to the organizers to see if I can still participate. As of sometime yesterday on Google-Time, I crossed the 2000 pageviews milestone and I don't THINK me checking my own page accounts for more than half of those so.... yay! Thanks, readers, commenters and especially you lurkers because I've really been enjoying this exercise and even when there isn't a lot of chit-chat, the stats show that you're all sticking around. :)