~*...free tekno...and the goblet of fiyahh!...*~

saturday afternoon i hooked up with my sister for dinner at my favourite japanese restaurant, ho su bistro at queen and john. our office used to be at king and john, and i lived at queen and beverly, so ho su was an essential part of my diet. i would eat there 5 times a week sometimes. they always have the most affordable and delicious food. for $4.99 you can get chicken teriyaki on rice with shrimp and vegetable tempura, coleslaw, and glass noodle salad. i don't think i can make that much food for less than $5.

after dinner, we hooked up with my friend laurien, isa and darryl at the paramount theater to see harry potter and the goblet of fiyahh! i had never seen the theater so packed on a saturday night....everyone was out to see this movie, parents and children alike. there were even some people dressed up as wizards, complete with hogwarts uniform. normally, the hard cores who get dressed up are out in full force opening night, but i guess that goes for the whole weekend.

i've never read any of the harry potter books, but i have seen all of the movies, and this one is definitely the best. its the darkest of all of the movies, mostly because it deals with death head on (someone dies). its also full of hormones, raging hormones. it seems like everyone is gettin some, or at least dealing with puberty. even haggrid has a love interest. harry potter naked in a bathtub gettin hit on by myrtle the ghost....randy!

my favourite quote from the movie..."an evening of well mannered frivolity" *bahahahaha* i can't wait to describe an evening like that. maybe that's how i will frame my going away party. "join me for an evening of well mannered frivolity" teehee.

after the movie, laurien and i headed back to my place where we met up with my friend graeme. we didn't have much time to get ourselves together because we were to meet up at a map point for the free techno party. that's right, old skewl rave styles. show up at the map point at a certain time, get directions to the illegal venue that the party was being held in. this reminded me of the daze of old, the original rave days.

we arrived at king and strachan (across from the former industry) where we connekted with a large group of partiers. there was no map though, instead we followed a guy across king street under the dufferin bridge and into the warehouse distrikt. we trekked past the go train station and followed the tracks for about 100ft where a large abandoned warehouse stood. inside it was large, dark, beat down, covered in dust, and raw....pure old skewl styles. the generator wasn't working, so we had to amuse ourselves for about 40 minutes before a replacement one arrived. this was fine though, as i was able to spin glowing poi in the darkness (and i had my lightning wire sunglasses too).

i was surprised at hos the venue was decorated, seeing as it was an abandoned warehouse. of course there were no bathrooms, only relics of a bathroom that once was. yah, we still took leaks in the busted up toilets (and anywhere else you could find to piss)

once the generator got there, the beats began to play. nothing like starting off the evening with a little dire straits singin "money for nothin and the chicks for free". the crazy thing is that most of the people at the party weren't even alive when dire straits released the song in 1985! yes, the average age of the people at the party was 18. i was taken back at how old skewl the jam was, an illegal party in an abandoned warehouse with blasting electronic music to dance to. i thought those daze were gone, but i realized that they never left...i just got older (read able to go to clubs). there will always be youths who are not old enough to drink who still want to dance all night.

i remember this warehouse venue from years ago during the dot com explosion...the age of the 21yr old millionaires. shift magazine held their launch party in that warehouse space in the late 90's. i remember that party clearly because it was huge and off the hook. i remember a wall of pcs linked up for some unreal tournament action, as well as g3z connected to the net for your browsing pleasure. man, the promise of the internet was a golden cup back then...too bad it went up in flames a few years later. not everyone was going to embrace technology as fast as the venture capitalists thought.

it was good to see the relic of that warehouse years later, and dance in there once again. there were many dark corners there to hide and be naughty *rraow*

what a great saturday of majik and dancing. big ups to laurien and graeme for the company, and to the free techno krew for putting on such a great free event. fuck you to the person who liberated my lightningwire sunglasses. i lent them to you to play with, not have. you suck.

if i had a camera i would post pix, but i'm still cameraless :( anyone want to donate one to me?

normaste

~*...boyz and their toyz...*~

tonight was a quiet night in playin video games, but in high definition. my boy bobby got himself a pretty sexxxy dell widescreen 24" ultrasharp monitor *drool* so tonight we geeked it out and played vids on his new badass monitor. sooo sexxxy!

16:10 aspect ration with a hdtv res of 1080i. half life 2 never looked so good. it has two usb slots in the monitor, as well as four slots for various memory cards including flash ram. yah, i'm such a silly geek sometimes. playin hl2 deathmatch was beyond crisp and clean on that monitor. your player's hand is almost as big as your actual hand. add to that bobby's 5.1 system, and, you get the pikcha...it was a night for us to geek out with bobby's new toyz at his place.

bobby is countin down the daze 'till his xbox 360 arrives. playing it on his badass monitor will truly be the ultimate. czech out this pix of what the xbox 360 looks like on bobby's monitor. and this pik too. too wikkid! bill's dream of having xp in everyone's home is becoming a reality, and we aren't complainin!

my handle playin hl2 deathmatch tonight was 'that fukkin guy'. i like the name cause when i kill someone, or get killed, most fps games will post "<handle> killed that fukkin guy". i laugh. in tonight's battle, there was a guy named "the internet". i laughed my ass off when i saw his handle. killing him brought up on the screen "that fukkin guy killed the internet". ahahahaahaha ;)

i have never seen a cleaner picture, or a sexxier monitor in my life. hey, when you pay $1100 for a monitor it better be fucktastic! the apple widepanels are also sexxy, but bobby's has the cleanest pikcha i've ever seen.

after a 12 of ghetto fabulous lakeport honey lager and rootz that jah blesses us with, our evening of gamin had to come to an end. on the streetcar home, this dude sat beside me and struck up a conversation with me. his name was ira. when i asked him what his passion, he began singing the song ":raindrops keep fallin on my head". i joined him in song and harmonized what words of the tune i could remember.

you never know when someone might break out in song on the streetcar. i love this city.

ira had a button on his jacket that said "more fun less stuff". how appropriate for the journey i'm about to take...packin my life into a single suitcase and a snowboard bag to go snowboarding is a challenge that i'm up for, and excited about.

now, nelson or kelowna? i guess i'll leave that decision up to you.

normaste

~*...the epic battle of dundas square...*~

there are some seriously fun tingz to do in this city. i had one of the most fun sunday afternoons ever yesterday. it began with an urban pillow fight at dundas square.

inspired by the organized pillow fight outside st.paul's cathedral in london, england, the peeps at newmindspace organized a public pillow fight.

these are the same people who brought toronto capture the flag in kensington market, and manhunt in the financial distrikt. fun and playful ways for people to connekt in the city.

pix from the london pillow fight

my sister and i arrived at dundas square about 15 minutes before the pillow fight. there was also an anti-gun rally going on at dundas square. gun violence in toronto has reached an all time high this year. less gunz more pillows i say.

i had dressed up in a red silk kung fu outfit that pretty much look like silk pajamas. i also printed off signs that said "t.a.p. fighters - toronto association of pillow fighters" with number on them like we were in a marathon.

we take pillow fighting seriously in toronto...betta rekognize!


photos by the watcher

the epic battle of dundas square began at 2pm. man, i never thought swinging a pillow could take so much out of you. more feathers, less bullets!


PILLOWNED!



photos by this dude

wielding two pillows brought forth many new and unstoppable pillow fighting techniques, including the spinning pillows of death and the double pillow no look confusion maker!

from blogto.com

more pix from the pillow battle of dundas square here. my boy nick also has pix on his site.

by the end of the battle we were all exhausted. the only real casualties of the war were a few exploded pillows.




photo by the watcher

we ended up at the imperial pub for some after battle beers. man, the imperial pub has been home to some great memories for me: underage drinking in high school, santarchy, and now the epic pillow battle of dundas square. after a few pints at the imperial, nick and i went to iv lounge for some sunday evening lazydaze action held by our friends sage and jeremy. i really like iv lounge, a nice small venue on dundas with good food and god beatz.

i went home drunk and satisfied after an intense day on the battlefield. hooray for kewl things to do in the city.

normaste

~*...random gifting happens everywhere...*~

what a great saturday night. i was cruising across queen street on my way to the apothecary for amy and patrick's going away party when i ran into a friend. yah, this kind of thing is not out of the ordinary for me on queen street. it is very difficult for me to cruise across queen and not run into someone i know, especially on a saturday night. hey, its my hood. anyways, my friend asked me if i was heading to funhaus to hear dharma lab and analog pussy perform. i told her i already had plans. just as we were about to part ways, she asked "hey norm, do you want a turtle?" and then handed me a small stuffed turtle.

i was blown away! kevin (dj red turtle) was my partner in crime on the playa at burning man, and one of my good friends. if you've been reading my blog then you already know this. the stuffed turtle that i was randomly gifted on queen street wasn't red though :( it was yellow, but as my friend naomi reminded me "you know a yellow turtle!" teehee. random gifting doesn't happen only on the playa, it happens everywhere, you just have to believe that it does.

i couldn't get over the high i was feeling after being gifted a yellow turtle. how awesome is that? i was hoping to run into kevin at the going away party, but he wasn't there. so instead, i gifted the turtle to one of amy's parents' friends. did that make sense? anyways, it was great to see such good people out, including amy's parents. it had been so long since i had seen them, years actually. its funny when you can sense things in other people, especially seeing as my outfits are normally very in your face and challenge people to think differently. amy is from a small town called nairn about an hour outside of london, ontario. by small town, i mean small town...400 people. there aren't many chinese jamaican dreadlocks there wearing bondage skirts, hoodies with spikes on them, and spiked dog collars. man, i wish i had a camera. that outfit looked hawt.


photo by mcbee

as i looked around the party, i was pleasantly reminded that as we all get older we filter out the shitty people in our lives. and when it came to their going away party, amy and patrick only invited the tip of the spear.


photo by mcbee

groovin to some propah house music with propah house headz at he apothecary was so much fun. "you don't even know me, you say that i'm not livin right. you don't understand me, so why do you judge my life?"

all the best in vancouver amy and pat. i will be seeing you real soon. we'll be shredding the coastal mountains together real soon.

after the apothecary, i headed over to funhaus for some psy trance. i'm not a huge fan of psy trance, or trance for that matter, but there's something about the community that comes out to these parties that keeps me coming back. its the fashion, the blacklights, and the accepting environment that this community creates. and the afterhours booze doesn't hurt either ;) its the age of the cyber punk. goth and raver have married, and their offspring are gravers. the spiked dog collarz of yesterdaze goths now glow in a blacklight.

the age of the cyberpunk has now spawned stores devoted to outfitting the goths of the future. czech out some of toronto's cyber punk designerz at futurstate and plastikwrap. dare we say cybergoth? whatever you want to call fashion, its good to know that a corset, fishnets, and come fuck me boots will never go out of style.

normaste

~*...its the most wonderful time of the year...*~

yesterday was one of those unexpected fridays. i spent the afternoon moving the rest of our stuff out of our old office. it was such an intense and condensed experience, quickly choosing what to take and what to throw away. years of hard work packed up into boxes. thanks to my boy johnny willy for all of your help and for lettin us use your van.



we sure have come a long way with this business thing. university could never have taught me the lessons i learned running my own business. onwards and upwards!

after an intense afternoon of moving, i jumped on the go train and headed to whitby to visit my mom. its christmas time, time to put up the tree, hang christmas lights, and play boney m! i spent most of today doing things around the house for my mom, and clearing space for all of my stuff. i'm so thankful for having my mom's place to store my things when i'm gone. its going to be a difficult task reducing my wardrobe to a single suitcase and a snowboard bag, especially seeing as i'm such a fashion whore. and so the packing up of my life begins....

my mom and sister dropped me off at scarborough town center this evening where i ran into my friends graham and graeme. we went to see the epic movie doom! ;) this flick was about as good as a movie about a video game could be. it was a perfect movie for the rock, who said "fukkin" more times in the movie than i could count. the first person perspective part of the game was very well done, but overall the movie was a joke of a film. i laughed often, especially when the rock was killed and he screamed "i'm not supposed to die!" GOLD!



tonight i'm heading to the apothecary for my friend amy and patrick's going away party. amy is the last woman i called my girlfriend. we broke up over 5 years ago. yah, i've been a swinging bachelor for over half of a decade. i've learned to love myself unconditionally, well, love myself more than i already did. i'll never be alone as long as long as i'm surrounded by people who love me.


you betta watch out, you betta not cry, you betta not pout i'm tellin you why...santarchy is comin to town ;)

normaste

~*...psyche out...*~

on saturday night i went to the toronto burning man community's decompression party appropriately named "psyche out". i loved this about the om community, and i'm rekognizing that it applies to the burning man community too...the participants do not limit their interaction to the time of year that the festival occurs, and that's a beautiful thing.

the party was held in kensington market at a place called the boat. i had never heard of it before, then again it wasn't a club. it was more of a hall space used for our decompressing pleasure.


photo by taymar

planning my outfit for this party was almost as fun as wearing my outfit. this is what i miss most about the rave scene, the imagination and creativity that went into preparing and planning your night out...the joys of making a costume...the rush of knowing that others will be creatively outfitting their personality too and dancing. people not being afraid to be radically expressive. this burning man community truly embodies the spirit of the burn...radical self expression, creativity, and imagination served up at random in all parts of the world.

i wore my red cross colors jeans with flashing lights hanging from the belt loops. i had no shirt on with my chest painted in glow in the dark body paint. i wore a pair of red angel wings, my red tam for my dreads, and a pair of lightning wire sunglasses that i got in china town for $6. you can find everything in china town, and i found the store that wholesales to those stores. schweet.


photo by firedoll jamie

you know what? as i'm writing this blog, or should i say revisiting this blog entry, i'm really feelin this loss of my camera. i'm feelin naked without one. hell, i can't even post a pikcha of my outfit, and to a fashion whore like me that's a problem (i have a folder of images of my reflektion in the mirror so that i have a pikcha of my outfit from that night). i can't afford the camera i really want so i'm cameraless for right meow, but that doesn't mean my friends and people i roll with (you) don't have digital cameras. so here's what i'm going to do: if you have a camera i'm going to ask for someone else to take a pikcha of you and i (and whomever else might be around and feelin camera whorish ;). then you can email the pik to me and i'll use it here in my blog. i'll give you credit for the shot and link to your homepage each time i share one of your pix. prrrfekt. if i've posted a pik anywhere in my blog that you do not want posted here, please send me an email and i'll remove it immediately. now back to your regular scheduled blog entry...

it was my friend angela's birthday (week), so her and my laurien joined me that saturday night to paint the town red. these two beautiful women had a great time painting my body as we prepp'd for the party by watching the malcolm in the middle episode where they go to burning man. because my body paint had not yet dried, i had to walk to the party wearing only angel wings on top. yah, it got pretty freakin cold. by the time we were half way there, i was like "fuck it, i'm putting on a jacket." the cold isn't so bad when you're dressed for it, but shirtless in november in canada just ain't warm enough *smacks head* i did get quite a few cheers and beeps from passing cars though, more than usual ;)

when we arrived at the boat were greeted by the smiles of beautifully creative people. outside the venue there was a school bus that had flames painted on the side. inside was blacklit and there was a hot tub in the back of the bus. they also had the street sign from the intersection of 4:00 and ego from the playa.


photo by taymar

walking into the venue i was stopped by three burnerz at the door who asked me when i was born. then they proceeded to sing for me the song that was number one according to billboard magazine the day i was born. i can't remember the name of the song, but i was very impressed to see that they knew the song and the words to it. pure playa randnormness.

inside the party was going on full strength. gawd i love this burning man community, they get dressed up to party! maybe dressed up doesn't even come close to describing some of the outfits. so many people radically being themselves. jawsome.

photo by firedoll jamie

my friend lucy had an art installation there that created a tunnel of hanging christmas lights. your journey through the vines of kerstmis lights were made even more of an experience thanks to 3d glasses that you put on. so kewl, and trippy.


photo by taymar


photo by juicy lucy

the party felt like i was at burning man, only inside a venue. the energy, creativity, and the vibe were all being embraced by the toronto burning crew that night.



photos by taymar

i was really happy to be able to spend time with my friend dani. this year was also her first burning man. i had met her at harvest festival. she had come up and asked me if i was at burning man. she was camping with the c4 crew. dani is a pure jedi. like attracts like, or so it seems.


photo by taymar

dani is also the traveler who introduced me to couch surfing international, one of the most brilliant uses of the internet i have come across. sign up and lets vouch for each other! my nick is 'phenormenon' .

after the party, a large group of burnerz then headed up to kensington park where baby g lit off a beautiful selection of fireworks. yah, we were definitely not being quiet or courteous to the people who lived in the neighbourhood, but by the time anyone figured out what was going on and did something about it, we were long gone. its not anarchy, its creativity! perspective is everything.



photo by juicy lucy

angie and laurien came back to my place where we crashed out after an amazing night. the toronto burning man crew reminded me that the burning man energy doesn't just flow through the playa, it flows everywhere. its not just in some of us, its in all of us.

normaste