The Vanity Project

It all started with an e-mail from the NOW magazine on Tuesday, June 21th.

Subject: Congrats from NOW!
You've won a pair of passes to see The Vanity Project, featuring Steven Page ofBarenaked Ladies at The Drake on Friday, June 24th from 6-8pm! ...

.....oooohhhhkaaaay.
What the.

The Vanity Project?

Sorry Steven, I totally forgot what this was about, I had to google. I found a few article on Steven Page's solo project with Stephen Duffy. Aah. Oh yeah. I remember entering for this contest! Yeah, tickets to see Steven Page of the Barenaked Ladies. Woohoo! Of course I was a bit concerned about some of the reviews I found about the Vanity Project, how it is more political and serious than the barenaked ladies. Hmmm....

So I headed over to the NOW mag offices on Thursday (yeah, was a bit busy with stuff to go there during work hours) to get the tickets. After the nice lady checked my ID, she said "Here you go! Enjoy!" and handed me 2 tags (see pic). Oh, they're not tickets? They're tags? Huh???
Kewl.

On Friday, the day of, because the concert was at 6pm, I got my Sweetie to come down around 5:30pm downtown to pick me up and headed to the Drake hotel. Okay, we weren't really doing any homework on which area was under construction, but boy oh boy, there was so much construction on every route we took! We couldn't turn onto some streets, we had to take alternates, and then when we took alternates, some of those were also doing constructions. Crazy! On top of this, the intersection between Queen street and Dufferin (right smack in the middle of where Drake hotel is) was also having construction. Crazy! So, it took us a good hour to get to the Drake.

I was feeling rather upset, thinking I may have missed the whole concert when we walked into the Drake hotel at 6:50pm. (with all the crazy parking and stuff, it took us a while). To our amazement, the concert hasn't started yet.

The person by the front stopped us, asked us if we were one of the Now content winners. I said Yes and showed her the tags, and she said "okay, here are 2 drink tickets each for you. You can have anything on the bar." !!! Whoa. Thanks Now magazine and Steven Page... for the yummy beer. ;)

We went to get a beer and looked around - and found Steven Page mingling with the crowd. Wow, it's small scale. Most of the people around had a tag... We found a nice area with a bar table to stand in front of, near the back of the room. The waitress kept on bringing food out to place on the bar table... wow, free food too. Mmm... We were hungry (as we didn't have dinner yet) so we ate some stuff there. Poached pear with walnuts, and some food that resembled sushi pizza but without the fish. Yum yum.

A short time after that, the new video came on on the screen behind the front stage (later I found out that the song is called "wilted rose") about animals who knows that they are going to be slaughtered, trying to escape the farm. They end up escaping the farm but find out what a crazy world it is and decide to go back to the farm. Oooo... kaay. Dark. And then Steven Page made his way to the stage. He explained that the people in the room is either contest winners, media or friends. Kewl. Saw Paul Myers and Tyler Stewart in the crowd.... ;) He also said it's different to be up there without the guys and started to sing some songs. Most of the people there I don't think knew any of the new stuff, since the album just came out that Tuesday, but it was good. More mellower version of barenaked ladies? After a while, Steve said "I'm also in a band called barenaked ladies, I don't know if you heard of it?" ;) Hehehe... he's still funny. He played mainly on a guitar, and sang a few songs with a harmonica around his neck as well. (he commented he's new with this harmonica, and that if he's not careful, the harmonica will be in his way and he'll bang it on the microphone)

The Vanity Project sound was pretty mellow. It was rather nice to hear Steve's beautiful voice accompanied only by the guitar. It was just him up there, with a guy helping out giving him the correct harmonica / guitar for the songs. The songs i found wasn't as political as I first thought (I thought maybe it'll sound political) though he did mention a certain politician in his song. It's nice to hear him do ballads. :) Different from the usual barenaked ladies.

To my surprise, he sang a few barenaked ladies songs, too. Brian Wilson, Call and Answer, and another song I wasn't really sure of... something about being in a basement... he wasn't remembering his words and he was having problems with the chords that it really didn't matter what he sang. ;) He kept on trying to remember the chord, and once he got the chord right, he would mess up the words... hehehe, it was fun to watch. He didn't know all of his Vanity Project songs' chords either.

He also talked a bit about the Live 8 thing that they were doing, how it is suppose to raise awareness and not money. He also said he was trying to give the white bracelets out for free on the street and nobody took them! I would've! I want one... ;)

All in all, this was such a fun concert to attend. He didn't sing too many songs and I think it ended by 8pm. I was hoping I'd say "Hi" to the guy but he seem to have rushed out after the concert. Oh well. When we decided to leave, and went outside, we found Steven doing an interview outside... oh, so that's why he left early! Oh well, maybe next time I'll meet him!

Followup stuff...

CP24 interview with Steven Page June 24, 2005
Article on Metro June 24, 2005
Article on Canoe June 25, 2005
The Vanity Project

Personality test

Got this from Sizzpop's and Yorugao's sites... Personally, this is like the most DEPRESSING test I have ever taken! Oh, it's horrible... I don't need a test to tell me this, I know this on my own... grrr... everyone including my doctor knows I worry too much. Okay, so the test kinda added more to worry about... which is just not what I need! *sigh* Get me out of this ruthole... orz

Advanced Global Personality Test Results Extraversion 56% Stability 33% Orderliness 43% Altruism 63% Interdependence 36% Intellectual 76% Mystical 70% Artistic 56% Religious 63% Hedonism 43% Materialism 50% Narcissism 23% Adventurousness 30% Work ethic 63% Self absorbed 63% Conflict seeking 83% Need to dominate 70% Romantic 76% Avoidant 30% Anti-authority 43% Wealth 43% Dependency 70% Change averse 76% Cautiousness 63% Individuality 43% Sexuality 56% Peter pan complex 63% Physical security 83% Physical Fitness 10% Histrionic 76% Paranoia 76% Vanity 50% Hypersensitivity 83% Female cliche 70%

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Stability results were moderately low which suggests you are worrying, insecure, emotional, and anxious.

Orderliness results were moderately low which suggests you are, at times, overly flexible, improvised, and fun seeking at the expense of reliability, work ethic, and long term accomplishment.
Extraversion results were moderately high which suggests you are, at times, overly talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting at the expense of developing your own individual interests and internally based identity.

trait snapshot:
paranoid tendencies, irritable, anxious, fidgety, dependent, worrying, emotionally sensitive, prone to regret, depressed, second guesses self, somewhat fragile, dislikes change, prefers organized to unpredictable, suspicious, phobic, craves attention, not a risk taker, low self control, very sensitive to criticism, unadventurous, does not make friends easily, defensive, obsessive, low self esteem

The Vanity Project

I won 2 tickets (or rather, tags) to go see The Vanity Project - the solo project for Steven Page of the Barenaked Ladies - tonight. Hopefully it'll be interesting. I hear it's more serious than Barenaked Ladies, so we'll see...

Note to Yorugao - I received your e-mail and the baton... I'll try to do it soon~

It's friday!

Friday Five

1. What do you wear to bed?
Mmm... usually some sort of sleepwear. Oversized T-shirt and shorts are usually the case. Shorts and tanktop lately because it's been pretty warm. In the winter it becomes long-sleeve big T's. I use to like wearing pants but I seem to take it off in my sleep 'cause my new comforter is soooo warm.

2. What side of the bed do you sleep on?
Centre?
Of course, sometimes (often) blankets and stuffed animals and stuff takes over my bed so in that case I am a little bit off to the left.

3. Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?
I use to. I do still have them on my bed. Bed bunny :) I also have a big huge dog and big huge teddy bear that ends up being on the floor these days.

4. Blanket/bed hog?
I guess so? I wouldn't know. I guess I'll find out in 3 months time!

5. Do you make your bed everyday?
Nope. My bed is always a mess. I guess I should learn to wake up earlier, but when I do, making the bed never crosses my mind. ;)

Tour!!!

Depeche Mode!

Sometime after October!

...enuff said.

;)

[concert] Erasure with Elkland

Date: June 4, 2005 (Saturday)
Time: 8pm door
Venue: Massey Hall

Erasure touring for the 2005 Erasure show with Elkland.

[Elkland]
Mmm... they are like like blur + cure + L'arc~en~Ciel divided by 3? Their music style will fit into the 80's fine, but they have some edge to them. I love the way the lead vocalist dances! He kinda dances rigid and with swinging arms, but arched back ... so it's neat watching him sideways. There is noooo way I can do what he does. I wonder if he took any ballet or gymnastics? (See their video on the web site if you're interested in how he dances). I fell in love with some of the songs they did, but their set was way too short! We kind of missed the beginning of their set (because we were looking at the merch and stuff) but I think we only saw like 3 songs? They must've only done about 5 songs. I wouldn't mind seeing them again. After they were done, I went to the merch desk again to snatch up their debut cd for $15. The one I got was one of the 5 remaining, they went really quick. Vince and Andy did a good job picking them for the tour, Erasure fans would like them a lot.

[Erasure]
Erasure set started off behind the curtains... you'd see just the shadows of people with wings. The crowd was going nutty, I think that segment was rather long but very effective. You can see Andy right away, since he's the biggest of the 'angels'... and then right after the first song, the curtain comes down and we see 2 girls with wings and Andy with wings. :) Vince was there also, in his own strange costume... If Andy was the fallen Angel, then Vince was a pilot of some sort... so strange.
Overall, Andy had 3 costume changes - The angel, followed by a glittery suit, followed by these sparkly um, let's put it this way, sparkly underwear that resembles what Superman might wear (except it's sparkly). Anyway, it was fun to see him doing his thang.

The concert was short, I thought, but they played a lot of popular old track (including some that I've never heard live before) so the crowds in this concert was a lot more happier than the last. The last concert was rather subdued and the crowds were sitting down most of the concert. But at this one, I was able to stand for most of it, which was great!

After the concert, we waited for them to come out, just to find out that they left quickly for Fashion Cares event. Darn. I still haven't met them. Oh well... hopefully next time...