Author: admin

On Friday night, Vero, Mike, Claudine and I headed out to Hull to check out a play Vero’s friends were in. The play was called ‘La Soif de l’or.’. We arrived at le théatre de l’ile which is right across from the hotel I swim at. It was a very nice theatre, but I swear I could hear the airplanes going overhead through the log roof.

Anyhow, the story revolves around a mining town where something has gone awry (aka, someone getting killed), as well as talks of the mining company shutting down some jobs in the area. All in all, I really enjoyed this play and I recommend people go to it if they have the chance. I had a good laugh when I realized who Vero’s friend was as she had changed her hair colour. She was the token ‘lady’ of the streets in the play which was funny considering she was dressed up the same way I saw her the last time.

Unfortunately, I didn’t catch the last part of the play where they revealed the big plot twist. The reason of this is due to Mike, or should I say, Mike’s spicy sausages for dinner. Right near the end of the play where the most dramatic part is about to come up, there is silence, there’s no music, someone is whispering and then it happens.

Mike’s stomach grumbles in what sounded like a a fart. In a silent theatre, it sounded like the cry of a wildebeast, or more appropriately (for Maren), a coyote howl.

As I had visions of remaining calm and respecting the actors on stage, I let out a little snicker. That started the cavalcade of laughter between Vero, Claudine and I. You know when you’re trying not to laugh because you’re in a quiet room and not trying to disturb anyone so all you do is have this silent laughter and once in awhile your vocal chords let out a little girl laugh? Well, that’s what was going on. I felt bad for the people in front of us having to deal with our laughter.

The problem was, it was one of those times in life where I couldn’t stop laughing. No matter how much I tried, it just came back to me. As I type this three days later, I am still laughing. Anyhow, I had to leave my seat to not bother anyone else. But then the play ended thirty seconds later so in hindsight, I should have just stayed there.

Anyhow, I’d like to put a shout out to Mike for giving me one of the best laughs in awhile. Claudine even commented that she hasn’t laughed like that since she was a kid.

After the play, we headed over to Carrie’s and Holly’s place for a little get-together which was great. We brought over a portable record player and put on a record that Danny had found at a garage sale. All it has on the cover is a naked woman and some German wording. So we figured we would ask Philipp what it was all about. Hilarily enough, when he saw it, he was having a good laugh as the entire album was some sort of pornography record from the 70s. We all had a good laugh listening to it with Philipp translating. Not a bad purchase Danny! We even went onto Ebay to see how much it was worth and found it for $10 in Yugoslavia. That album gets around!

Good times were had at Carrie’s and Holly’s – got to check out Holly’s new bed, walked around in a lab coat for awhile and witnessed the marvel which was Carrie’s new remote control farting machine. That thing was great, but not as great as Mike.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been reading an autobiography of Stompin’ Tom Connors, whom if you don’t know who he is, check yourself out the door as a Canadian and remind me to call up Citizenship and Immigration Canada to change their immagration tests to include a question about the Stomper.

Stompin’ Tom is a country singer born and bred in Canada and is the stuff of legend. Hitchhiking across Canada dozens of times, living on scraps, he came to know 2300 songs by heart, hence a performer was born.

The book is based on his recollections of the time spent in his youth before becoming famous. I’m about 50 pages from the end so I figured it’s a good time to give a review. The book is amazingly funny as he gives you a glimpse of how it was hitchhiking across Canada literally dozens of times between the age of 15-30. There are quite a few good stories along the way and here’s a teaser.

One day a gentleman from Ireland was in Saint John New Brunswick and couldn’t figure out a way to Montreal where his family lived due to no money on his person (remember, these were hard times.). Tom Connors decided to offer up the services of showing him how to hitchhike to Montreal. Along the way, they usually took turns knocking on people’s doors asking for a bit of food. One day, Tom was walking up to a house and out of nowhere two pies were placed on the window sill, straight out of the oven to cool down. Tom thought about it and made a run for it with these pies, giving one to this Irish buddy and the other to himself. When his buddy was about to chuck the plate across the street, Tom said “Now listen, this lady was nice enough to give us some pies for free, the least you can do is return her plates in good condition.” He agreed and took back both of their plates. Well, the front door open and he got a frying pan to the head! Cursing and swearing and chasing him away, the Irish lad didn’t know what was going on! Tom was rolled over in the ditch laughing until his sides hurt and the Irish lad was pretty peeved.

Anyhow, the hilarity continues throughout the book, but also there are some sombre times when Tom recounts tales of not eating for days on end which, I can’t really even fathom how people functioned. Also, the entire outlook on hitchhikers and the drifters is a fascinating one as nowadays, people seem to disregard these people who are down on their luck, but really, the majority of them are just like you and me – but they have run into some bad luck.

You don’t even have to be a Stompin’ Tom fan to enjoy these stories! Just know that you’re reading about a Canadian icon!

All in all, I really enjoyed this read as it’s just stories from the road. It’s also funny to see him talk about places I know, such as Timmins and Kapuskasing. If you’re into biographies, or just plain old good stories, I highly recommend picking this up! It had me laughing out loud on the bus many times. Thanks to Dad for suggesting this to me.

This movie is the cats meow, loaded with special effects, killer action and a great cast!

Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock star in this high octane action movie trying to thwart the menacing meanderings of one Dennis Hopper (a fan, I am).

So get this. Dennis Hopper is some maniac wanting some money so he bombs an elevator shaft hoping to hold them hostage. But then Keanu comes in and saves the day and it’s awesome goodness because Keanu is the man and all is good in the world as he saves the hostages. But then he’s trying to save his partner (Jeff Daniels!!!) who is being held hostage by Dennis Hopper but then Keanu shoots him (right in the leg!!!), like WHOA DUDE, chill out! But it stems back to the awesome ‘Pop Quiz’ line in the movie where Keanu said he would shoot the hostage if need be in a situation to ‘take them out of the equation’.

Anyhow Dennis Hopper manages to escape, blow up a bus with some friend of Keanu’s on it and then says that there’s a bomb on some other bus in the city which…get this…this will BLOW YOUR MIND…

It will blow up if the bus falls below the speed of 50 miles an hour.

HOLY MOLEY! WHAT A CONCEPT! Unbelievable! For a Canadian like myself, I couldn’t even do the conversions in my head…it must be close to 300 km/hr or something like that! I couldn’t fathom how it would feel to be on this bus full of people all freaking out. But there is Keanu, keeping his cool (until one part where he freaks out and it’s definitely Oscar worthy.)

Anyhow, I couldn’t believe the bus made the jump across the freeway gap which was 50 feet across! I fainted after that point because I was jumping up and down wondering what would happen.

All in all, 2 thumbs up for this great action movie. What a gem, and I hope that everyone gets to see this great movie. Sandra Bullock wasn’t too bad in it either, although all she did was drive the bus. But she was cute, in a sort of a Sandra Bullock way.

If you’re a fan of good movies, you have to watch this when it comes out on DVD!