Easter Weekend

I had a great Easter weekend, folks. It was long and epic one, fueled by the fact that I finished my undergraduate classes (I won’t say that school is done forever, granted almost all of us need post-grad degree to keep on succeeding). On Friday we celebrated Meghann’s birthday, which included a chapter at The Victory Cafe, then a stint at Ronnies Local 69, and a last stop at her house complete with red wine and two large pizzas (luckily, for about 8 people in total).

On Saturday, however, things went to another level. I hosted a pre-#dancecamp party on our patio, despite the temperature dropping to -5 (or whatever it dropped to!). I busted out my white faux fur coat that my parents gifted me with 1.5 years ago. I prepared delicious hors d’ouevres such as smoked oysters with herbed goat cheese on melba toasts, cucumber caps stuffed with truffled fine herb chevre and roasted peppers on top, not to mention the cheese plate, anchovy and roasted pepper crostini and the winner: rye crisps drizzled with lemon, dill, extra aged manchego cheese topped with avocado. Desserts included starfruit and green seedless grapes. When it comes to food, I will not disappoint.

Many good people showed up, including Jay Goldman, Slava Sakhnenko and his brother Eugene, Rajni and Amanda. Jay brought the new mango Absolut vodka, which we quickly utilized in the game of chess, where the pieces were actually 1/2 shotglasses filled with strawberry pieces and said flavored vodka. We set to play, donating many shots to the crowd since even 16 halfshots is a lot to drink. I must brag to you and tell you that I won, and that it was an exciting game.

We then set our course to Sneaky Dee’s which was the night of Fuck Faces. Dougie Boom, Syntonics reigned the decks, to our collective happy dance. I ran into Egyptrixx and Alias, which is always a pleasure. And our Toronto tweetunity strongly represented. Thanks for coming out, y’all, and thanks to those who made it to the afterparty as well. Night of big success! Adieu university!

Filed under: moving up , food, friends, fun time, toronto

Top 10 Parties Of All Time

at Space, 2008

I present to you my favorite parties of the past 5 years (since that’s when I started dipping into the scene). The type of an event you talk about for weeks after, revel in the photos/videos and wish you could do it over & over again.

1. Carl Cox at Space, Ibiza, Spain, August 2008. Function 1 sound system, tons of happy people everywhere, amazing beats, all in the legendary Ibiza! I don’t need to describe too much.

2. Egyptrixx, Alias et al. at the Palms Out Sounds CMJ showcase, New York, 2008. Not only the quest of getting there with friends was a blast, but the non-stop heavy beat danceathon till 4am was a pleasant way to kill the October night. Oh yes, it ended with a breakfast at 5am.

3. Housemeister & Modeselektor at Igloofest, Montreal, January 2009. It was an amazing outdoor experience in January at -15C, complete with running into Vancouver acquiantances and dancing with a giant pink rabbit, as well as videotaping the fun, falling in love with techno for the n-th time and bartending comrades.

1. 

   Watergate, Berlin. 5am

4. Tresor and Watergate, Berlin, August 2008. Both of these parties are at par and happened few days apart. Tresor “never sleeps”, and is a scary former power plant – I clearly remember walking in the basement towards utter darkness, but towards the heavy sounds of techno, knowing I was certainly walking to a right place. Watergate was a blast with Krystel & Gerald with sunrise on the canal, and random guys from Chicago gifting us roses.

5. Richie Hawtin aka Plastikman, Vancouver, October 2005. I went by myself and met a million people, got a pass to get on stage and had Richie’s aunt (!) videotape me dancing. I also drank her champagne and ended up at the afterparty where Richie spun. Pretty random and advanced for Vancouver town.

6. My 20th birthday party, Vancouver, July 2006. It started with the longest Japanese Izakaya dinner with friends – first came the squares, then mid-funsters, then rockstars. We ended up at Shine night club and I told Paul Devro that it was my birthday and that I bought the dress I was wearing earlier that day at Dadabase, so he gave me a bunch of drink tickets. 6am bed times after whole lotta fun with close friends.

7. Ellen Allien, Mod Club, Toronto, September 2006. “Last night a DJ saved my life” is exactly how I felt about that night. I’ve been in love with Ellen for few years then, and seeing her few feet apart was unbelievable. Plus, I met an amazing dance team and made new friends in a city I just moved to!

8. Black Ghosts, Wrongbar, Toronto, July 2008. I was extremely tired that evening, but Egyptrixx and Alias dragged me out to an amazing show. I was impressed with live singing and mixing, old beats and crazy rave tunes. Even though I never been to a rave, I felt like I did that time. Great workout, too.

9.Bodyheat party, San Francisco, June 2007. My friend Logan threw a lot of Bodyheat parties back in 2007. We drove from Los Angeles that night. Arriving at 3am, we hopped in just in time for super drunk people to depart and diehards to kick it.

10. Running amok with Michael Leyton, San Francisco, December 2005. The first time we met, we went to a BYOB Mangosteen place, then went to Japantown and stole an American flag after some drinks, explored SF in a car, then I persuaded my way into some cheesy club (being underage), where we danced hardcore to 80’s rock music, screaming “We want techno!” It ended with Michael crashing his car.

Filed under: memories , 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, Berlin, dancing, Europe, fun time, ibiza, memories, self, Spain, travels, vancouver

La Tomatina

for the win

Ever since I’ve opened a Spanish language textbook at the age of 16, and learned about la Tomatina – I always wanted to go; except the idea of going was constantly being pushed into the undetermined future. Until last year, when I and four of my friends set our vehicular sails for Buñol in the province of Valencia. We arrived on time to park on the outskirts of the pop=9,000 town. More than 30,000 fellow fighters walked to the center of the town with us, happily yelling at each other and laughing at the unsuspecting flip-flop wearers and camera-ready enthusiasts.

note that our shirts are white

First we got a bit of a squish session with the masses circa my Prague 2000 escape from Vaclavske Namesti along with 40,000 others. Then we moved to the front row (because we are lovable fighters), bewildered by the buildings covered in Tyvek or something similar, and watched 6 trucks slowly roll one after another, raining tomatoes on us little guys. It was on! Our goggles, €5 shoes with double laces and swimsuits didn’t help much, and the tomato juice still burnt the eyes and the skin, so we screamed Agua! Agua! to the gods above and it literally rained buckets from residential balconies. 

I got hit in the head so many times, and I scored some good shots myself. Our team fought some folks on the other side of the narrow street, tomato river kept getting deeper and deeper, people bathed in the tomato sauce, people screamed, shouted, took photos with their waterproof cameras, tried to fix their goggles only to get hit in the face. But more than anything, everyone had an absolutely unreal experience. You didn’t know that 120 tonnes of tomatoes can do this magic?

After a 90 minute battle that seemed to go on forever, we stumbled to the river and bathed, proud of ourselves, drained, feeling like the different people that we became and simply happy to be alive. We then drove to Valencia to swim in in the sea and feast on authentic paellas.

Filed under: the world eh , art, Europe, excitement, food, friends, fun time, Spain, tomatina, tomatoes, travels

Highlights of 2008

I’m glad the year of the Mouse/Rat is over. It was a tough year, but also a very rewarding one, filled with events, color and life. It was definitely a great one for meeting new people and leaving the dead end contacts behind. It was a year of travels, learning, emotional change of scenery, breaking the habits, and finding peace. In short:

Vice internship, movies with Slava, Barbi, snow angel challenge, high tea, cuckoo New York trip, mad revelations and heartbreaks, the legendary night of the Justice show at the Great Hall, indoor pool voleyball in Richmond Hill with a blizzard outside, Montreal for the first time ever, straight to Vancouver, the return of Dimitri, straight A’s that semester, “I love nature” cottage visit, summer internship, more Montreal, Lemeac, Rajni, Ottawa, Rafael Nadal, gourmet adventures with Roberto, Magdalena’s return, dancing late and coming to work early, Osho, red eye to Europe, constantly ringing cell in Berlin, Baltic Sea, goth party in the bunker, wasp attack, Kunstwerke, Michael and Karin’s epic search for a gallery, scootering in Ibiza, flying, getting lost in the hills with fuel running out, Gaudi, Joan Miro, Catalan people, Faulkner’s Light in August, La Tomatina, Valencia’s paellas, the girl from Jupiter, getting lost in Barcelona with a flight to catch, gloomy London and port, vintage stores in Shoreditch, Strategic Planning, yoga, wonderful professors, wonderful people, PalmsOut in October, jerks stealing my possessions, Vosges chocolate in SoHo, Coney Island freak show, Mad Men, calming down, peace of mind, movie night with dear C.L., playing the tambourine till 4am, BBDO, roommate reunion, blizzards in Vancouver, the return of Scotch, securing that opportunity, The Sacred Book of the Werewolf, light at the end of the tunnel, Russian madhouse, caviar and champagne on New Year’s Eve.

Filed under: memories , 2008, barcelona, bbdo, Berlin, career, Europe, friends, fun, fun time, ibiza, improvements, joy, life, London, memories, montreal, plans, review, ryerson, Spain, tomatina, toronto, travels

15 years old again

Here is how it is: I laugh at the audience of preadolescent gals – or adolescent? Heck, let’s just say, tweens, – frenzying it up for some teenage vampires. Oh, and I don’t even know what the movie is about, and what sort of hilarity we are destined to see. And hilarious it is. Except that on the 55th minute you rapidly start swaying towards the gentlemanly Edward Cullen. Later on, one clues in that no 17- or 25-year old would ever act so nobly; it takes approximately 100 years to figure out how to treat a woman (girl in this case) right.

And yes, I remember how I used to love, love, love Anne Rice’s novels (that, last time I checked, still held the top of mind place in consumers’ minds), and vampire Lestat, and vampire Armand. I gave up on all of that. Ad then True Blood sucked me back into it. And so did the Lancome Piha Black lipgloss over their red lipstick a la Louboutin sole of a shoe.

And then this Twilight thing came out. I don’t mind admitting that I appreciate Robert Pattinson’s exterior, thank God for our same-agedness. If he was a tad bit younger, I would have to reconsider. All right, Edward Cullen, take me away! I am, too, a fan of Debussy’s.

PS. This review made me laugh so hard, I nearly had to rush to the washroom. Bagels, doom, and proletarian demands. I say, get them while they’re young!

Filed under: simple life , film, fun time, marketing, movies, music, obsessions, pop culture, product, review, twilight

this shit ain’t rocket science

Just because I haven’t had the time to update does not mean that I haven’t been enjoying things.

My midterms and cases reap solid results, and I am happy. I’ve got some more projects and assignments coming up, but I am happy about them.

This Friday Dave, Darren, Jon, Eric and I are going to New York, because the first two are playing at the Palms Out party. If you’re in NY, come see Egyptrixx and Alias play the Whiskey party at the 205 bar (205 Chrystie @ Stanton, Lower East Side). I am happy to show my friends my New York and all the quality places that I approved In the past, I used to go there for a person, now I am going for myself and to have a great time with friends. It’s going to be a blast!. The picture on the left was taken in February 2007 (lower east side, btw).

D and I went to the awesome Full Moon Vegetarian restaurant on Dundas & Denison in Toronto. I was quite impressed by the quality of their food, and especially the “mock duck/pork/beef/etc”. Great options there.

PS. Kid Kudi is not bad. Grab his Day N Nite.

PPS. Please, also subscribe to The Economist. I am addicted myself. And student rates are fabu.

Filed under: moving up , excitement, food, friends, fun time, memories, music, new york, toronto, travels

why hello

Originally uploaded by dreamtiger

this is from such a long time ago! well, well…. 2004. I remember, those were the days. Summer after we graduated from high school, the days before university, texting my boyfriend at the time (finance engineer guy, heh), we just spent the afternoon shooting 35 mm and speculating about the future. The sun shone brightly, the belt felt heavy, we felt the lightness in our stomachs and were so full of optimism… Speaking of, the positivity is even higher now.

Filed under: memories , 2004, changes, friends, fun time, legs, life, memories, photography, photos, self, summer, vancouver

London Callings

Oh, crossing the streets is a major nuisance here. I feel like I’m breaking all sorts of laws when crossing. Even Zoe said that she still doesn’t quite know when she is allowed to cross or not, because very often the pedestrian light turns red, but so does the light for cars. This is when I usually run across. I’m obviously confused as to which way to look, but luckily there are directions painted on sides of the roads: “Look left”, “look right”. I find it strange that back in 1999 I didn’t find the “right” side of the road to be a problem. In Russia the same sides as in Canada and US are the “right” sides, but I never took notice. Perhaps I didn’t cross the streets enough.

Well, alas, tomorrow I have to return to North America. I may be that sapping young woman on a plane that everyone is going to think said good bye to her boyfriend and is now sad. Whilst in fact, I will be sad about leaving Europe. I’m from here, and I will be back (for good)! Terminator said so, and he returned, see.

Ah yes, stay tuned for the art and literature reviews. I picked up so many fabulous books! I’ll have to work my charms at the British Airways check-in desk tomorrow, making sure they don’t charge me extra for going over the allowed bag weight.

From one of my new acquisitions: “Don’t bunt. Aim out of the park. Aim for the company of immortals.” David Ogilvy, Confessions of an Advertising Man.

Filed under: Quotable, moving up , Europe, fun time, London, mobile, travels, trip

Catalunya

Well! I am in Spain. It has been my secret desire for some time now, I must admit.

I always wanted to have tapas and enjoy the chatter of passers by.

Barcelona is a wondrous and surreal place in way that a Juan Miro’s work is, with its grotesque animal shapes and disfigured perspective, with its narrow streets that make you slightly uncomfortable but definitely welcome you to get lost and find yourself in some safely tucked away Placa… I keep thinking that I will uncover some secret when I walk around the Barri Gotic or even Barceloneta. I am convinced there is a secret that a handful of locals are able to whisper, yet they all have it in their hearts, Catalan hearts.

My dreams of seeing the artworks by Picasso and Miro are coming true! I absorb the culture like a sponge of sorts and I am extremely happy to have the opportunity to do so. I am grateful for the friends that are with me.

Xavi and Sal are great guides. They took us on a tour yesterday. We went into a small square where the building walls still bear the gunshot marks from the times of the Civil War. I could not believe my eyes, but my video camera did.

The food, the food. Let us discuss – we went to the Mercat Santa Caterina, and my eyes fell out at the sights of fresh seafood, and several dozens of cured ham varieties. Ladies and gentlemen, make sure you go to the markets. Skinned rabbits, goat heads, cow brains, steaks, mushrooms, cheeses… Yes.

Last night we drank homemade sangria (guess what, i’ve acquired the recipe, too…), and went to Gracia neighborhood for some drinks. The narrow streets are littered with small bars and whatnot. Did I mention that I used the Bicing system and biked through the hilly city (in a slightly not so sober state, oops)! I did well, and unfortunately Georgina did not because she and Sal fell off their bikes

And it’s been only two days so far. More museums, more food from the markets awaits me, and more fun. We still have to go to the Sidecar and dance our socks off.

Tomatina happens on Wednesday! Stay tuned. Oh, definitely do. Salud!

Filed under: moving up, the world eh , 2008, barcelona, food, friends, fun time, Spain, tomatina, travels, trip

Ibiza

Ibiza is a wonderful place. Word of caution: you have to do more than just party party.

We rented a scooter and drove all over the island.

First, of course, we took a cab to Sant Antoni, and went to party at Space. We saw Carl Cox. 6am end time, cabs with British ladies and all that.

We rented a scooter, and I must say, a scooter is an important part of an Ibiza experience, unless of course you want to pay €25 for a ride to Ibiza town.

Krystel and I had an awesome experience riding all over the island, particularly at night. Yesterday we covered half of the island, in pitch dark, with rabbits hopping about the road.

The villas here are rathe fancy, and i’d like to own one someday. He he he.

We ventured into areas that not so many tourists go to; we toured all over the dark northern coast of Ibiza, sat in the middle of the road and stared at the sky (with our helmets on of course he he).

We ate swordfish, and drank local wine. You must must must drink wine from Ibiza; it is absolutely wondrous!!

We danced like there is no tomorrow.

I must say that there were too many trashy British girls; they gave a bad name to the whole Empire. I will post a video of some exceptional examples as soon as I get back to Toronto.

Overall, Ibiza was a great experience. The sun, the fun, the lost in the hilly residential areas with barely any fuel left, and then eating grapes off someone’s wine estate, and scootering through druglords’ villas and whatnot.

Ibiza is a wonderful place, but you must do more than just party till the wee hours and sit on the populated beaches!!! Toy must explore and you must go deep into the island to uncover the true story.

Filed under: moving up, the world eh , 2008, Europe, fun time, ibiza, memories, mobile, Spain, travels, trip

On a return train

More observations include the fact that eggs come in 10- or 6-packs. Wherefore did the idea of a dozen disappeared to?

Wind power is pretty widespread here. Florian was saying that the government will pay you a lot of money to install one of the wind power-generating mills.

I tapped into the German popculture when I purchased an Ampelmann from Eastern Germany. Hehe. Pretty cool.

I didn’t manage to swim in the Baltic Sea due to horrid weather, but Florian did go for a quick swim and he fished out a pair of Baltic sea sunglasses in surprise dive (sentence structure?).

I got off at a wrong train stop, so am currently trying out all methods of trainsportation in Berlin in order to get back to Kreuzberg.

Filed under: moving up, the world eh , 2008, Berlin, fun time, germany, memories, mobile, self, travels, trip