It’s Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend and I am happy to spend it relaxing with friends and family. I don’t need to be anywhere or do anything in particular and it is awesome.
Life
A Notebook For My Thoughts
I buy a lot of notebooks. A lot of the time they have formatted pages like Spark Notebook or are themed. I wanted something that I could write in whenever I wanted, with no guidelines and I thought the Leuchtturm1917 was perfect for this. Plus they come in all sorts of cute colours. For once I decided to go with something fun and bright.
What I love about this is instead of lines, there are dots. It allows for freedom but at the same time will keep my writing straight, as opposed to a completely blank notebook.
I think I am going to use it as my own Bullet Journal, but not a true Buju. I am mostly just going to do the point form notes. The goal setting stuff I read about remind me too much of structured notebooks and I want this one to just be a book of thoughts, song lyrics, or anything that inspires me.
I want this to be the first notebook that I will fill.
Playing Music To A Film
Last Saturday, I performed publically for the first time in a few years. I was the soundtrack for Erwin Olaf’s Waiting project where a lady waits for somebody who never comes. The music was written by Sebastiaan Roestenburg.
As an anxious performer, it was definitely a challenge to maintain composure for over 50 minutes.
It was the first time I had actually played with the film in it’s entirety.
In the end, I was around 1 minute off at the end (I played a bit faster than it was) but I improvised until I saw the film fade out and nobody noticed. Yay!
It was fun to be a performer for once!
Photos by Matt Forsythe
Why Is Everyone Liking My Old Tweet?
52 days ago when I was at Sappy, I bought a hat and tweeted this:
Today I saw it blow up for some reason for many hours. I was very confused considering it was an old tweet. I started to wonder if I ended up on Reddit or a post on Mashable or something. So I did what most people would do: I Googled it.
I then found out I am part of this Twitter moment called “What do you look like?” that is on the first page of the Moments tab on the app.
I’m not sure why I’m on there but at least the mystery of where the Likes came from is solved! Moments are an interesting feature that shows tweets from trending topics or events in one place.
The Day My Toilet Exploded
On Friday, after a long day at a music festival, I showered and sat in bed on my computer like every night, relaxing.
Then all of a sudden, I heard a sudden splash of water and it didn’t stop. I quickly ran to the washroom to find that the pipe delivering fresh water to the toilet, came out. Water was continuously pouring at high speed out of this pipe.
Anxiety struck me and I froze for a second. I couldn’t find the strength to use the knob to turn off the water. I’m not sure if I didn’t try hard enough or that I physically couldn’t do it. Anyway, I had the somewhat bright idea to aim the spewing hose in the direction of the shower to minimize the flooding it was doing to my entire bachelor apartment.
Crap! I thought as I didn’t have my phone with me or my Apple Watch (as I had taken it off for bed). I had to let go of the pipes to fetch it. I then called Nash frantically but there wasn’t much he could do since he was out. So I did what my mind thought was best. I called 911.
Every time I tell someone this story, they think it’s funny when I get to this point. I even asked the operator if I had called the right number after explaining my situation and she redirected me to the fire department.
The trucks arrived at my building after a couple of minutes but the firefighters forgot or couldn’t find my unit. I once again let go of the water pipe (resulting in more flooding) to run into the hallways (like a crazy soaked lady) to go find them.
I pointed at my crazy spewing toilet and the firefighters turned it off within seconds. Then they proceed to mop my floors. I am very thankful that they did. I honestly thought someone would just come turn off the water and I would be left with the lake on my floor. That was my greatest panic and fear when I first saw the water.
I now have a new toilet, and the pipe seems safely attached but I will never view plumbing the same way again. Adulthood is hard but sometimes traumatic experiences make funny stories a few days later.
I also published this post on Medium.
Hear Me Talk About Grimes on the Polaris Podcast!
I’m on the Polaris Prize jury and the prize will be announced next Monday night! I was recently featured on a Podcast talking about why Grimes should win. Check out the podcast featuring awesome points about all 10 albums below.
Back in Toronto
I’m pooped but back in Toronto now. I went with the coolest gang and we all became the best of friends. Stay tuned for FME recaps.
Last Day of FME
I can’t believe it is Sunday already. I am loving it here in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec so it will be bittersweet to have to return home tomorrow.
I have a ton of photos to share from my trip so the next week is going to be full of posts about my adventures.
Don’t Let Go Of The Potato
Since I am currently in northern Quebec, I’m being immersed in French. I’ve taken French classes of some sort until I was 22, so I have a decent comprehension of the language but since it’s not a daily thing, I have to think a bit before I can form a sentence as a reply. Being in a place where you’re required to speak is actually helping a lot. Learning or keeping a new language is definitely easier if you can use it practically!
Anyways, there are some things that becherelle’s and dictionaries can’t teach and that is phrases and sayings. My favourite so far is “Lâche pas a la patate”, which in English literally translates to “Don’t let go of the potato”. However, it is a funny way to say “Don’t give up”.
Off to Rouyn-Noranda!
I’m off to Rouyn-Noranda for my first music festival in Quebec. We’re flying in a chartered plane and it will be my first experience doing so. I’ll keep you posted on my adventures but you can follow along live on social media.
Tiana Feng 