entertainment – Page 2

Missed Connection at Edgefest

July 17, 2012July 17, 2012Drinks, Entertainment, Food3 Comments

On Saturday, I went to Edgefest at Downsview Park. The weather was 30 something degrees, but your touch hit the mark.

I met you next to a super delicious stand, that sold me this sandwich of pemeal bacon:

You were pale, yellow and cold. Your flavour was bold. We met 3 times that day. What the hell am I talking about? It was a $6 lemonade.

I blame the poem above on the 37 degrees weather Toronto’s experiencing today. It made me miss this delicious (but super over priced) lemonade. I don’t have any pictures of it. I also have no idea if the vendors have a store outside of Edgefest, but if anybody knows I’d love for you to help me solve this missed connection!

Snakes and Lattes- A Board Game Cafe

July 16, 2012October 13, 2012Board Games, Drinks, Entertainment, Food3 Comments

Located at 600 Bloor Street West, Snakes and Lattes has become one of my favourite new discoveries. Simply put, it’s a board game cafe. A place where you can have a drink and play a game with your friends.

The place is only a few years old, but already they’ve expanded into the building next door. For now, only one side is liquor licensed so if you’re looking for some drunk board game times ask specifically for that side. When you walk in the place its usually full of people playing games of all types. I saw some pretty complicated boards with islands and giraffes.

The atmosphere is friendly and inviting. There are a couple of walls lined up with thousands of board games. According to their site they have over 2208 games. There are even really limited edition versions of the board games that you can’t even buy any more. I got really nostalgic when I visited the shelves. I love Jenga and I found the Mario version (which I later ended up buying).

I was there for a birthday party and we asked for game suggestions. The staff is pretty knowledgeable about all the games and will teach you how to play if you’re too lazy to read the instructions. We discovered a game called Cards Against Humanity which is a hilarious and dirty minded version of Apples to Apples. Definitely a great one to try if you’re there to drink.

I wish I lived beside this place, because I want try all the board games. It’s a great place to kill time and hang out with friends. For only a $5 per person charge, you can sit in the cafe all day. There is also food and drinks available so you won’t starve if you really do decide to stay the day. It’s also a great place to try out new board games before you buy them. They have a bunch of new games on site that you can purchase if you do become attached to one.

I definitely will be back to play some more games soon!

Angry Birds in Space is So Much Better

June 8, 2012June 8, 2012iOS, Technology, Video GamesLeave a Comment

It’s been a while since I have beaten an iOS game. But now that I commute (A LOT), I have a few on my phone to amuse myself during down times. The majority of my iOS gaming still happens on the iPad that I don’t really carry around with me any more.

Angry Birds I’ve never actually beat yet. I think I got stuck and gave up. However, Angry Birds In Space, adds a whole new level of complexity, gravity. The whole premise is there are planets and their orbits can suck you around in a loop and you must use this to your advantage. Some of the birds are the same as in previous games, but a few have changed.

The addition of gravity gives the game a whole different feel. You’d think winning a level was a fluke before? Well, you never know where on earth the orbit will swing you sometimes. The only thing I didn’t like about this new game was that harder levels had to be purchased for another 99 cents.. so for now I am going to cross this game off as beaten!

The Grimms’ Fairy Tales Taught Me Nothing

May 23, 2012Books, EntertainmentLeave a Comment

The past couple of months before bed, I’ve been reading The Brothers Grimms’ fairy tales. I had never read the real stories as a child, and I am glad I never did because I haven’t taken away anything useful from the 210 stories. The majority of which were vastly repetitive. Some were just down right stupid. Here are some recurring themes:

The princess always marries the first tolerable person she meets. The kings and princes always must marry a princess.
Inanimate objects such as beans can run away and have conversations.
The majority of the time there is no lesson to be learnt.
Ugly people always lose.
The youngest brother is always the best.
It’s okay to gruesomely kill animals.
You can steal from people who are evil.
Parents frequently abandon their children due to poverty or to teach them life lessons.
Cutting off parts of your toes might win you a prince.

The Future of Music- A Book Written in 2005, Read in 2012

May 17, 2012Books, EntertainmentLeave a Comment

I won the Entertainment Marketing award when I graduated Metalworks Institute and it came with a $300 gift certificate to Music Books Plus. I’m slowly plowing through my books, but I recently finished The Future of Music- Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution by David Kusek and Gerd Leonhard.

I read the entire book, but it didn’t take me long for me past the prologue to ask “When the hell was this written?” It was written in 2005.

While the book had some interesting points, such as music should be as easily accessible as water, there were predictions that were hilarious. Napster with a legal streaming service that works? Sorry, it was dead since it was sued. In 2005, Facebook was only a year old and the iPhone wasn’t even released for another 2 years. It’s strange to see how much has changed in 7 years, or even in my lifetime. I lived through vinyl, cassettes, CD players, MD players, mp3 players and now that has all shifted on to one device.

While the book does mention how our entertainment hubs will combine into one, it rarely mentioned Apple. It’s a well written book for someone who isn’t as knowledgeable about the music (or even entertainment) industry, but for someone like me who’s been through schooling, it was a little redundant and stating the obvious.

While technology has changed a bit, there are things that remain somewhat similar. Media companies are still trying to fight the consumer for downloading media, which as stated can only have negative impact. In addition, the book stresses the revolution of streaming music, which last year at every digital music summit, still seemed like a big deal. However, as some artist’s have stated, it takes thousands of listens to make a couple of bucks.

Even though there are a lot of things in this book that are laughable. I really liked the idea of future music being as ubiquitous as water. We pay for water without thinking about it. It’s routine. We even pay for premium water (in bottles, Evian etc..), with the guarantee that it is better than what comes out of taps. iTunes and streaming services are closer to a way of music being so easily accessible but not everyone is ready to pay for it like we do for our water yet, nor the most simple way. Whatever lies in the “future” of music, isn’t going to be a singular solution.

For your entertainment purposes here’s a list of other things that didn’t exist in 2005:
– Twitter
– iPad (or any other useful tablet for that matter)
– Youtube was a baby
– Hypem had only just started
– PS3
– rdio
– Justin Bieber

Acrobatic Mother’s Day

May 13, 2012May 13, 2012Entertainment, Family, Life, MusicLeave a Comment

I had no idea what to get my mother for Mother’s Day. On Thursday, I decided instead of something superficial, I’d give her a night of entertainment, an experience. That’s how I live my life! Somehow I had managed to score tickets to the National Chinese Acrobats’ Saturday evening show at The Sony Centre. We had pretty decent seats for last minute.

We were actually much closer than this photo makes it seem.

The Acrobats were collaborating with the Kitchener-Waterloo orchestra, the same group that I had seen perform the Final Fantasy Distance Worlds concert for my birthday. The acrobatic stunts kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. Man, did some of those feats make me nervous!

Even with all the visual distractions, I was really appreciating the classical works performed by the symphony. They played some classics like Stravinsky’s Firebird and Berlioz’s Hungarian March. It irked me a little when people clapped (although understandable) during some of the beautifully quiet string solos and passages. It was an experience that was both aurally and visually appealing. Mom enjoyed it, and I hope to take her to experience more of what Toronto’s entertainment scene has to offer!

Here’s a Youtube video I found of the acrobat troupe rehearsing.

Final Fantasy Distant Worlds Was Awesome

April 1, 2012August 22, 2013Entertainment, Music1 Comment

Last night I went to see an orchestra play music my favourite series of video games Final Fantasy. The tickets were a birthday present from my boyfriend. It’s one thing to hear the music in game, but it’s a completely different experience to see it all live. The composer Nobuo Uematsu was even in attendance.

–random video of a similar performance

They have a different orchestra for every location they play in; probably because it’s not financially viable to fly 70 people everywhere. It was conducted by the famous Arnie Roth who conducts mostly video game concerts. How do I make that a real career? Video game footage synced perfectly with each piece they played and I’m pretty curious as to how they did it. It is an amazing spectacle. I should have taken a camera, but I am really glad I didn’t because I wasn’t distracted by anything while I was taking it all in.

They played all my favourite songs (even the Chocobo theme) and ended with an epic singalong to SE-PHI-ROTH. It was one of my favourite nights in a long time!

Side note: My back tattoo seems to match the Distance Worlds logo.. sort of.

Surviving Music Festivals

March 26, 2012Life, MusicLeave a Comment

Random photo of me and Montreal's Honheehonhee

Canadian Music Week was keeping me busy last week, hence the lack of blog posts. This year, I didn’t want to bother any of my Toronto friends with crashing on their couches so I commuted back and forth. I was kind of like Cinderella, disappearing to catch the last bus at 1:20am. I’m pretty exhausted but here is how I survived the past week.

Continue reading ➞ Surviving Music Festivals

Puzzlejuice Crushed!

March 7, 2012iOS, Technology, Video GamesLeave a Comment

It has been a while since I beat an iOS game on my iPad but I started to look for short ones I could play on my iPhone when I had short periods of free time. Puzzlejuice is my most recently finished. It’s a hybrid mix of Boggle and Tetris requiring you to be constantly thinking of two things at once.

There are goals to achieve that unlock certain powerups that can be used in each game: