first snow

it's a battlefield
of rock paper scissors
the weight of fall under
the weightlessness of winter

paper won

yoghod!

Yoga time!
So I've belonged to the YMCA for a while now and have only tried one yoga class. I'm usually all about the weight machines, but I decided that my body felt like it needed some extra deep breaths. Wouldn't you know it! That's what the yoga class today was all about! Five minutes in he said "We're going to do a lot of breathing today". I agreed!

We started off with some jumping around. Orange t-shirt and white see through pants man off to the side was a huge distraction to my concentration. The instructor chanted some sort of word, I believe it was "hod!" with every beat and jump he took. Only the man in orange was REALLY into it and far more aggressive then the instructor. Also, he was shouting his "hod!" on the one beat, whereas the instructor was on the 'one and' beat. So it basically sounded like an animalistical time. A jungle if you will. Snarly men making far too close to what seemed like bedroom noises.

I thought maybe the instructor was as distracted as I was. I know every woman in the room was looking and waiting for orange shirt man to get tired of his over exerted nomad grunts. But at the end of the exercise, the instructor looked over at the man and said "GOOD. Everyone feels the muscles breathing". At this point I realized he meant we were going to breathe a lot, metaphorically speaking.

But the workout ended up being a good one. My calves were killing me. The tiny instructor with cloth wrapped around his head just took another swig from his oversized chocolate soy beverage container and told us to lay down and breathe.

The thing about yoga is you lay around a lot. He put on this tape of the same four chords and a girl strumming and singing "ta dum shi sa ma na ma na ma ta dum Shi sa ma...". It went on for ten minutes and I couldn't meditate because I was too busy thinking about the killing I could make recording and selling fantastic yoga music. Yoga music for babies. Yoga music for him and her. Maybe repetitive gnarly guitar solos thrown in once and a while.

I am the worst at meditating. It's usually because there are about five different things racing through my head at all times.

But anyway, it was sort of fun doing samurai poses, hopping from one foot to the other. I guess there's all kinds of yoga. This one was, in its circumstance, sort of amusing.....

Now, back to arranging horn lines. guh.

Last Friday night I went out to Hugh's Room for a night of amazing music. Lori Cullen was celebrating the release of her new cd with a 12 piece band. This music obviously deserves that many artists squished in around the stage. A beautifully recorded masterpiece, this album is full of shiny brass arrangements and nostalgic glitzy pop vocal harmonies. The musicians were right on and seemed to come together really well. I was truly inspired by Lori's compositions and her ability to warm the crowd with her humour. I have been listening to the record since and I recommend that you grab it for anyone in your family as a nice Christmas gift. There isn't a person I can think of in my family who wouldn't enjoy this album.

Moving on, the guys and I had a gig Saturday night at the Tranzac. It had been far too long since we last played so to add more fun to the evening, we played all new stuff. For the first time since college, I also played some cover songs (the last song I covered in college was Laura Nyro's Poverty Train, all about getting off the cocaine)! I defeated my anxiety of playing other people's songs. Once you get it in your head that you feel uncomfortable in these certain situations, it's really hard to get out of it. So I hope to do more covers from now on.

Anyway, the weekend was an uplifting one. It got me out of my fall sad rut and reminded me how much fun music can be (you know, when you don't think about how little money you're making and tearing your hair out over bed tracks and song arrangements).

Monday Morning

What a strange colour to the day. First of all, it's dark. Every hour feels like the new 5 o'clock, with its evening tone. I use this morning to play the same two chords on my piano as I stare out at the sky and to listen to One Trick Pony. Paul Simon looks like a professional baseball player on the cover.

The weekend was a nice reset. I went home and hung out with my family.
My sister Mel and I found these socks at the dollar store with her cat's name on them.

Mel and I went over to the states and went into stores with really creepy Christmas music. The kind that is just plain old midi. We even went to McDonalds where this cute teenage girl with a tattoo on her neck that said 'William' in calligraphy complimented my dress and said 'You're not from around here are you? Canada?' and I shyly said 'Yes, Toronto'. I'm not sure what gave me away, but it definitely wasn't any use of the word 'eh?'.

Anyway, what a swanky McDonalds it was. And I will say that their sizes have decreased to the Canadian size. No more super size joy land. No more kicks for you over in the Mario World of American fast food.

Today there is a band rehearsal for the show on Saturday. We are playing with Sandro Perri
who is amazing. His album has been in my player for quite some time.

I also went out and bought Jolie Holland's Springtime Can Kill You and Joan as Police Woman's Real Life. The records are fantastic and I recommend them!

I keep thinking about this house my sister, mom and I drove past this weekend. I used to ride my bike past it on my way to Corri's when I was a kid. It's this old farm house. I told my mom that if it ever goes up for sale, I'm quitting this city game and moving out to the country to become a crazy spinster with 20 cats. I'd go into town once a week to get the mail and groceries. I'd have an old upright and tons of books. She told me that the woman who lives there fit that description pretty well. So I would carry on her legacy.

Whatever, I'm rambling. It ends here.