Summer Side of Life

Lately I've been lying outside in my back yard thinking about how much fun I used to have during the summer (instead of having fun this summer...hmmmm, is there a lesson here?). I've also been reading a lot of end of summer blog posts and back to school blog posts and getting rather nostalgic and weepy (well, maybe not weepy). Then, the other day I stumbled upon this huge box filled with photos my mom took when I was small, most of them ranging from '95 to '99 and there were plenty of happy summer photos. Some of these are from my mom's photo collection (they used to call her The Crazy Camera Lady from Hell, because she was always making everybody pose for pictures) and others are just pictures I found that hit a soft spot for 90s summer nostalgia. I am definitely not ready to go back to school since it appears I am reverting to childhood.

[side note: sorry the picture sizes are all over the map, I had a heck of a time trying to format everything]

Some photos of me and my brother and various long-forgotten friends, Baby-Sitters Club Movie, Sweet Valley High, 90s beach Barbies, 90s Vogue, Sarah Sovereign

I spent the other day at the park with my friend. It was such a beautiful and clear day and I was feeling nostalgic as hell, so I took about a million photographs. I was also running around the field and shouting at one point, just to give you an idea of how stir crazy and antsy I'm getting about the summer ending and having done nothing of note with it yet. My friend was wearing an awesome Star Wars t-shirt, which then I guess helps tie this in with my 90s summer tribute. I had just learned how to tie one of those turban-style headbands on my head and was feeling like I should be a fortune teller or at least sitting around a camp fire late at night telling ghost stories with the Midnight Society (anybody else remember Are You Afraid of the Dark?).

I keep trying to think of what the perfect summer day would be. As if I could plan it. One that felt like something out of my childhood, yet still edging into the new and uncharted waters of my final teen years (well that sounds drippy, but I figure you'll get what I mean). But,c I think it's impossible to plan a day like that. They are far too similar in nature to beautiful summer days themselves: rare, fleeting and very difficult to appreciate until they've passed. So until summer ends and my final year of hi!school begins, I hope I will have the patience to appreciate the beauty of the summer before it's gone.

 Are You Afraid of the Dark? and some of my summer soundtrack:

Summer Side of Life - Gordon Lightfoot

Story I Heard - Blind Pilot

Round the Moon - Summer Camp

Late Great Cassiopeia - The Essex Green

Tornado '87 - Rural Alberta Advantage

May your rest of summer be magical.

Loose ends and invisible roads

This is most likely going to be my last Quebec City-related post for at least a while. One really amazing experience I had in Quebec was getting the chance to see Cirque du Soleil perform. I didn't even see the truly spectacular shows they put on under the big top (which cost a pretty penny) - I saw a free performance in lower Quebec called Les Chemins Invisibles (invisible paths). I saw it twice, so the second time I focused more on photographing and taking videos because it was just too good not to remember. I thought it was amazing for 3 main reasons: 1 being its location and set design (it was held under an overpass with beautifully grafitied supports and the set was made up of a stage in front of shipping containers stacked on top of each other onto which was projected a video background with amazing visuals); 2 because of costume design (from far it just looked like everything was cool and went together well, but when you looked really close, the amount of detailing and all the subtleties of the costumes was mind boggling. My favourite was the King's costume) ;and 3 was because of the music (They had a live band, with a drummer inside a shipping container, an awesome guitar and piano player who skateboarded around the stage and a truly mesmerizing singer). Actually, the music is so good that if I they had it on a soundtrack (I checked - they don't), I would buy it. I even videotaped an entire act just so I could have the music.

The stage was huge and very complicated. In the centre was a tower-like structure with many different floors, including one with a table and phonograph. On the very top was the king's throne, encapsulated by snaking wire-like lights.

Very interesting details were all over the place when you looked closely at their costumes - like the many hats this man wore and the alligator (or maybe it's a crocodile?) draped around his shoulders.

The king's costume was my favourite. I would kill for some epaulets like those. And maybe a crown of Barbie legs and a steam punk-esque monocle goggle thing, too.

The singer played a role in the show as well, interacting with the other performers and acrobats.

The guitarist was very 1970s punk, with a kilt and everything.

The singer's costume really reminded me of that futuristic spacey pop star look from 1999 and Aqua (although her singing far surpassed anything produced by Aqua) and the king's crown was so awesome - I didn't realize that it was made of Barbie doll legs right away; it reminds me of this Stephen Jones hat.

So, if you find yourself in Quebec City this month, you should really go see Les Chemins Invisibles. I'd be really sorry to have missed the opportunity.

Take a listen to the audio clip I took at the performance. That lady's voice is amazing and hypnotic. I dreamed with this as a soundtrack once and it was the most relaxing and trance-like sleep I've ever had...very weird, but very very cool.

You know, it's not like I'm some modern punk, d!ckhead!

Not sure where the first one's from, Hair Wars, Hair Wars, Fashion Pirate, Molly Soda Melanie Dawn Harter and Kelly Osbourne .

So I am finally home from Quebec. It's weird because there isn't all this stuff that I HAVE to do (il n'y a pas d'activités obligatoires - just kidding, I won't pretend I'm all fluent and whatnot and be all pretentious writing in French). But on the other hand all the free time means I can do all the crafts and projects (and blogging) I want to do and have been putting off. Provided I don't get sucked in by the television, that is. Television and I, we gots a complicated relayshunship. Anyways, one of these projects is dying my hair. I am going to get it cut and bleached lighter blond by my hairdresser, but I think I am going to dye it with Manic Panic or something soon. Thus the hair photos make sense. I don't think I want to dye my whole head, but I don't want those funny-looking piece-y streaks either. I'll figure something out...provided I don't chicken out. But that's only because, as much as I will deny it and try my damnedest not to, I care entirely all to much about what other people think about me. It's ridiculous, because probably anyone who would judge me is not someone I would care about at all..but I'm still human. It's all so vain isn't it? Worrying about what other people think about you? I think we're all a bit too wrapped up in our own lives to really be worrying about anyone else's anyway. Or judging the decisions they make or the way they dress. Well, enough about my insecurities and human faults...isn't rainbow hair cool? :) I like the idea of just dying the tips, but my hair's so short, I don't really know how that would work. And gradation of colour. That's cool, too.