Weird is discovering that an actor that you saw briefly in a movie stuck in your head not because you recognized him from a previous role, but because he bears a striking resemblance to a guy who acted in a short student video in high school 12 years ago. A striking resemblance to the guy as he looked 12 years ago.

When I realized who he reminded me of, I nearly fell off the couch. For a few minutes I thought that the guy had gone from high school theatre in Edmonton to movies in Hollywood without aging a single day in 12 years.

He didn't. But boy, it would have been crazy if he had.

I created a calendar to keep track of upcoming music events and other such fun stuff, which you can all view here.

You probably won't see your favourite death metal band's CD release party there, but you will see a few events that I came across that I thought would be worth checking out. If you do know of an upcoming event that you think others would enjoy, feel free to send it to me so I can add it to the calendar.

Rock on, kidlets.

It's getting colder, but it's also the season of much good live music.

It is by no means a definitive schedule, but I created a calendar where any live music performances that so far seem worth noting have been recorded. Any performances marked in green are ones that I would have to be a complete ass to miss.

You can view all this goodness at http://calendar.msn.com/limeworld[at]hotmail[dot]com. (Remember to replace the spam blocks.)

The world is a grand and beautiful place, for the band Stars has released a new album.

Go forth, rejoice, get naked.

And make sure you're back in time for their November tour dates.

In December, my Matt and Nat bag and I will have been together for a whole year. Ordinarily this wouldn't be of much significance, as previous purses had been wallet transportation and little more.

But this . . . this bag is different.

Green. Perfectly shaped. Perfectly sized. Willingly accomodates most items I try to squeeze into it without fuss. Perfect little handles that fit neatly in the palm, or hang on the arm for convenience. Made of the silkiest pleather you will ever feel. I didn't even realize it wasn't leather until months after buying it.

Everywhere I go, people love the bag. The only way a bag could get more attention is if there were a baby bunny peeking out of it. People ask me where I got the bag, how much I paid for the bag. People can't believe how much I can fit in the bag.

The bag has gone to Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, Tokyo. This bag has seen the world with me, tucked under airplane seats, peeking out of other bags, sitting on the train between Tokyo and Makuhari.

The bag is equally at home with a jean jacket as it is with an ivory peacoat, lunch grabbed from Wendy's or chic French cuisine. Basically, it's perfect.

But here's the thing . . . when you use it everyday for everything and take it everywhere, it starts to show a bit of wear and tear. Nothing serious, really, just some wear on the handles. But it's making me realize that the perfect bag isn't going to last forever.

Finding its successor seemed like a fairly simple pursuit, but so far it hasn't been. Everywhere I look, the bags are good, but not necessarily worthy of taking place alongside THE bag.

It's actually gotten to the point that I am tempted to buy another of the same style just to ensure that I will have one even when the original finally gives up the ghost.

I think that's part of the appeal of Matt and Nat bags. Each one feels rare and entirely unique, and they're hard to come by. I don't know if that was strategic on their part, but I think it's working in their favour.

Well, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to drool over more handbags.

NEW!

A successor has been found! Go see!

Moment of Truth #464:

Record yourself singing along to your favourite song, and then play your singing back without the song.

All I can say is, ouch.

Not only was Mono fantastic, but there was also a band from Qu�bec called Fly Pan Am, whose music is sort of hard to describe. Experimental . . . a little out there, but also one of the most electrifying shows ever. The encore was great. The crowd was so wild for them afterwards that, although the band had started to disassemble their gear, the drummer picked up one of his drums and started hitting it with his hand. There began an incredible semi-unplugged song that seemed to develop organically, each musician plucking this, tweaking that, breathing, coughing, moaning into the microphones. It should have been a cacophony, but instead it was visceral and thrilling. It almost had the energy of a drum circle with electric guitars and alcohol to mix things up a little. The energy was so incredible, one of the musicians passed the microphone into the audience where people picked up the rhythym and continued with it. Then one of the guitarists passed his guitar into the audience, and the song continued seamlessly, with a handful of audience members jumping on stage and rocking out in amongst the band members. It was like we had all participated in making this wild musical stew.

Realizing that the last two groups were so fantastic, it's too bad we missed the first band, No Hands. Especially when the guy who put together their album went to my high school. Actually, he's in a band too, but they weren't playing tonight. I wonder if he'd remember me, or just be like, "Uh, do I know you?". One of these days I'll get around to saying hi. Maybe.

Friday night at The Sidetrack - listening to Mono. Awesome. Thanks to Will for suggesting it!

Laryngitis sucks.

Actually, being sick on its own sucks, but laryngitis adds a whole new dimension of crappiness.

Have you ever had one of those days, where you spend an extensive period of time composing an email in a text box on a website, and then you click to send the email, only to discover that the internet connection is down? And then when you try to go back to the page that used to have your email on it, you can't?