Tuesday, February 02, 2010

I wish I'd written this down earlier because my memory has faded a bit...

My boyfriend is a musician. For New Year's Eve he and other local musicians played a night of covers. It was really fun,and between sets he would come see me, but for much of the evening I ended up just dancing with myself.

After our kiss at midnight he had to rush back to the stage to play the first song of the new year, a slow song. I was left standing there rather awkwardly as couples around me paired off. Into the song, he gestured for me to meet him just off stage left. He proceeded to kiss me while continuing to play the song. He later admitted it was actually really difficult. It's the sweetest thing he's ever done for me!

When that song ended, the finale was a cover of the Beatles' Hey Jude, which he pulled me on stage to sing along with the band.

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posted by Vanessa at 8:43 AM


Friday, January 15, 2010

With my impending graduation this May, I've been singing this song to myself the past few days. While I haven't been thinking of the rest of my life so much in the sense of settling down and getting married, I wonder what I'll do in terms of work/a career after I finish university.

I started thinkin’ bout
The rest of my life
I found my selfish looking out for
Trouble and strife
Someone with whom I’ll spend
The rest of my days
But if I ever said I wasn’t
Set in my ways
Then I guess you caught me
Lying to myself

What kind of fool
Doesn’t think about it?
What kind of fool
Doesn’t think about it?
You’d have to be a fool
Not to think about it

Am I gonna settle down
Am I gonna be
Someone who has to take
The rest of my life
To settle down?
Then I guess you caught me
Lying to myself

Who’ll make a man out of me?

One thing I know about
The rest of my life
I know that I’ll be
Living it in Canada
I know I said I’ll share
The rest of my days
But I was only
Going through a phase

Am I gonna settle down
Am I gonna be
Someone who has to take
The rest of my life
To settle down?
Then I guess you caught me
Lying to myself

What kind of fool
Doesn’t think about it?
What kind of fool
Doesn’t think about it?
You’d have to be a fool
Not to think about it?

Am I gonna settle down
Am I gonna be
Someone who has to take
The rest of my life

Am I gonna settle down
Am I gonna be
Someone who has to take
The rest of my life
To settle down?
Then I guess you caught me
Lying to myself

Am I gonna settle down
Am I gonna be
Someone who has to take
The rest of my life
To settle down?
Then I guess you caught me
Lying to myself

--Sloan, The Rest of My Life

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posted by Vanessa at 3:11 PM


Friday, December 18, 2009


2009 Polaris Music Prize winners Fucked Up have released a version of Do They Know It's Christmas?

Along with a portion of their $20,000 prize winnings, the band will donate the proceeds from this song to Canadian charities supporting women from Vancouver's Downtown East Side and Aboriginal women.

Give the song a listen here then buy the song for 99¢ from iTunes.







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posted by Vanessa at 4:41 PM


Tuesday, November 24, 2009

I made yogurt this past weekend. It was surprisingly easy!

I read around on the internet about how to make yogurt without a yogurt maker. I found this Epicurious article to be a helpful guide.

There are two ways to make yogurt, either with a bacteria starter or with a few spoonfuls of yogurt you already have so long as it has "active cultures." I decided to go the former route. I bought this Yogourmet yogurt bacteria starter at a health food store but have since seen at grocery stores.

The only other ingredient necessary is a litre of milk. Although I don't drink 2% milk, I used it for yogurt because I like my yogurt thicker. I got a good consistency with 2% milk.

The first sterilized a two glass jars and their lids I had by boiling them in a big pot for 15 mintues and then set them aside. Next I brought my milk to a boil, stirring occasionally so it didn't stick to the bottom of the pot. The milk needs to reach 180°F (a thermometre is helpful for this) to kill any bacteria that might be in it. As I don't have a microwave (like Megan does) and hadn't been using my oven that day, I turned it on low to heat it up while I was waiting for the milk to reach 180°F. After the milk has reached 180°F it needs to cool down to about 110°F.

The milk is cooling down

Once the milk has cooled to 110°F ladle a small amount into one of the sterilized jars and dissolve the yogurt starter bacteria in it. The milk mustn't be to hot when the starter bacteria is added or else it will kill them. For this reason, after my oven was warm I turned the oven off. Stir the dissolved bacteria into the larger pot of milk. Once the bacteria has been well stirred in the larger pot the only thing left to do is to ladle it into the sterilized jars and incubate the jars.

The yogurt incubating in my oven

To incubate the yogurt I place the jars in a casserole dish, wrapped them with dish towels and placed them in the oven with the light on. The Yogourmet package says that your yogurt can be ready in as little as 4.5 hours, but the longer you incubate the yogurt the thicker it will be. I left it incubating over night and went to see Ohbijou play.

The next morning I checked the consistency of my yogurt. Deciding it was amply thick I put it in the fridge for a little over an hour to set the yogurt and had it as part of my breakfast later that morning. It was delicious!

Homemade yogurt

I tend to go through yogurt really fast. Next time I'm going to try making it using a few spoonfuls of this batch as a starter.

A friend of mine who can buy farm-fresh organic yogurt for $5.25/900mL asked me about the cost. The food thermometre I bought was $6.71 but it's reusable again and again. The Yogourmet starter bacteria was $4.28 for six 5mL packages that can make 1L of yogurt each, which works out to 71¢ per packet. Therefore the cost of 1L of yogurt (not counting the thermometre, electricity, time etc.) is equal to the cost of the starter (which would be a one-time cost if you then used yogurt as a starter), 71¢, plus the cost of milk you buy for a total cost of about $2.50-$4.00/1L depending on the milk you buy.

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posted by Vanessa at 11:04 PM


Sunday, July 26, 2009


My boyfriend caught The Daredevil Christopher Wright at NXNE, where they played three shows. Apparently they hadn't brought (enough) merch and so they called their mom and she drove up from Wisconsin with more -- how sweet! Anyways, my boy gave raved about these guys and their musicianship as he played their record for me. He even went so far as to say they "sing like angels." Check it out! I especially recommend giving the song A Conversation About Cancer a listen.

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posted by Vanessa at 9:41 PM


Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Rest for the Weary is perhaps the most beautiful song I've ever heard played live.

[Update June 17, 2008]: Rest for the Weary was the CBC Radio 3 Track of the Day for June 9th.

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posted by Vanessa at 12:31 AM


Monday, December 17, 2007

Said the Whale West Coast Christmas EP I was quite happy to receive this early Christmas gift from local band Said the Whale, their West Coast Christmas EP available to download for free from their website.

I like dreaming of white Christmases as much as the next person; and when snow flakes start to fall, such as they did last year, I encouraged Mother Nature by playing Dean Martin's Let It Snow on repeat; but ultimately, living on West Coast I don't feel I can relate to most traditional carols about winter-white Christmases. So with lyrics such as "Here comes the rain, must be Christmas again on the West Coast," their song Christmas Under the Clouds excited me. Thus my appreciation for this Said the Whale song.

With less-is-more piano, Tyler Bancroft and Ben Worcester evoke images of a dreary, grey landscape. The song crescendos to an angsty Christmas wish, but thankfully it stays at just that. Untinged by a Kermit-the-Frog-esque vocal slip, the song then leads into a beautiful rendition of "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas."

Anybody having spent a Christmas on the West Coast will be able to relate to this song. However, don't let the gloomy and drepressing weather get to you: grab a cup of hot chocolate, curl up by the fire and let visions of sugar plums dance in your heads.

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posted by Vanessa at 11:07 PM


Wednesday, October 03, 2007

"'Cause this call costs a fortune and it's late where you live."

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posted by Vanessa at 12:15 AM


Monday, September 03, 2007

I'm surprised that celebrity entertainment blog Perez Hilton hit so close to home. I'd never visited the blog before, as I like to stay as out of touch with celebrity gossip as possible, and only found out because I was checking out the details for their show on their myspace. Good for them!

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posted by Vanessa at 8:37 PM


Thursday, July 12, 2007


I was surprised to see Neville Chamberlain's words used in the context of a reconciliation between Chantal Kreviazuk and Avril Lavigne gracing the head of The Sun's Arts & Life section yesterday. No matter how badly this dispute could have shaken the music industry, I can hardly believe that it would be on par with the Munich Agreement that was supposed to guarantee against war with Hitler. I didn't hold The Sun in high regard before this, so I can only hope this headline was chosen ironically to point out the stupidity of celebrity journalism.

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posted by Vanessa at 8:21 PM


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