~*...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

~*...boyz playing with their sticks...*~

last night my boy nick came over with his new snowboard, boots, bindings, and gear. this season will be nick's first season on the slopes as a snowboarder. i helped him buy new gear, and last night helped him put it together. the gear he bought was badass. not necessarily a beginner set up, but he'll get a lot of seasons out of his purchase that's for sure. he bought last year's ride timeless 159. this stick is the most responsive board i have ever ridden. my brother and my friend bobby both bought the 2004 ride timeless. after riding bobby's board, i realized how a board is supposed to respond. it was almost as if it knew what i was about to do before i did it. its one of those boards that doesn't like going slow and shines best at high speeds.



nick also got last year's ride team bindings and this year's burton hail boots. such a slick set up. and they look so hawt together. fashion is such a big part of snowboarding. yes, snowboarding is all about strapping a board to your feet and riding down a mountain, but its the feeling that riding brings out in us that makes us love the sport. the same goes for fashion. its the look good feel better mentality. if you feel you look good, you feel better about yourself. what looks good is different for every person. i'm a fashion whore, so my outfit matching my board and my bindings goes without saying.



hey, you wouldn't buy a car that wasn't the colour you wanted would you?



after setting up nick's board, we pulled out my futon mattress and buckled into our rides for some bouncing action. i really enjoy this exercise. its a great off season way to tune into what its like to be buckled into your board, and get a few bounces in there. but holy crap does it take a lot out of you. a trampoline is way better for bouncing, but alas my room isn't that big. bounces, airs, nose and tail stalls, and balance...all great skills to practice by bouncing on a mattress. a spring mattress is better too for bounce. maybe next time i'll use my bed mattress.



thanks to nick for bringin his camera with him. its been so long since i've had a camera *sob* i really miss takin pix *sob*

later that night i went to my friend bobby and dana's place for their housewarming. they had moved into the apartment upstairs from them, and were having some friends over to break in the new place. nick and i had been drinking the whole time we were playing with our boards, and then after a few drinks at bobby and dana's, i pretty much had the desired effect. by the end of the night, i believe i was a bit annihilated. the bike ride home was a bit wobbly, but i made it home safely. thanks to my friends who encouraged me to wait a bit and drink some water before i jumped on my bike home.

i love my friends. i love snowboarding. i love me.

- normaste \m/^_^\m/

~*...c'est l'halloween...*~

last night wasn't really halloween, but it was dress up time in the city for those of us old enough to go clubbing in costume. gawd i love halloween. it encourages people to outfit their personality in wildly radical and creative ways without fear, or at least with less fear than any other day of the year.

my evening began at fez batik for my friend daniele's birthday. daniele and his wife kimmy have always been an inspiration to me since before i even met them face to face (met on the om mailing list almost six years ago). daniele is my good friend isa's (isa and darryl) older brother. yah, the genes are good in that family.

there are so many life lessons that i have learned from daniele and kimmy, too many to list here. i'll share with you some of the ones that have resonated with me lately. daniele's age was gettin the better of him, and it negatively affected his self esteem (how i cannot figure out cause holy crap he's gorgeous). that changed one day when one of his friends said to him "daniele why are you letting yourself be old?" we are who we chose to be, and over the past year i've seen daniele radiate with his choice to be the brightest light that is within him, regardless of age. it reminds me of the saying "growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional."

another time, daniele told me a story about him and his wife one day when they were making dinner. he told her "kimmy, everything you want out of life go get it." i asked "because she deserves it?" and he said "no, not because she deserves it, but because that's what life is." thank you daniele for being a bright light in life for me to reflekt. happy birthday brother. yes, i surround myself with many jedis.

myself, daniele, and dena last year good friday. and this is his sister isa. can you see the resemblance? ;)

kimmy is the beautiful soul who reminded me that there are an infinite number of ways to right now. thank you kimmy. i took her wise words and made it my own. now i tell people that there are an infinite number of ways to right meow.

yah, i'll say what you're thinkin...i roll with some beautiful people. the people i surround myself with are beautiful souls, and are also very good looking too. they bring it out in me, and i know i bring it out in them.

after dinner i went to a smaller private halloween party held in a fantasy play space. this place was out of this world. it looked like a regular house outside, but as soon as you walk through the front door you are transported to a different universe. the whole house inside had been converted into a full time fantasy space with six themed play chambers including a victorian boudoir, a class room, an examination room, a transformation salon, a grotto, and a medieval dungeon. i had never ever seen a place like this, yet alone enjoyed it with the most diverse group of people crossing the wonderfully diverse spectrum of races, classes, cultures, genders, ages, sexual orientations, practices, and sexualities. we are blessed to be here in toronto, and events like this remind me of that. we celebrate every colour of the rainbow here in canada.

i left the play party around 3am and headed to a loft party my friends were having. shakin my ass to proper beatz after feasting on flesh was a great way to end my halloween saturday night.

if you ever want to do something fun and different, outfit the creative part of your personality and go out on the town...its even better with friends. it doesn't have to be halloween for you to get dressed up.

normaste \m/^_^\m/