Blogs Results

I woke up the other morning to the realisation that it's already the month of June. Which means that winter is less than six months away. One reason I suspect the time seems to have gone by so quickly is that, by most standards, the weather this spring has been rather sub-par with cooler than usual temperatures and lots of rain (let's save that precipitation for the winter folks). In the spirit of making the best of it, the Snowboard.Com east coast crew decided to end the month of May with a bang (from a boom stick) by taking in a musical.

The city of Toronto has a rather vibrant theatre scene. Which is not something you would expect snowboarders to notice but we can be highbrow once in a while too. Of particular interest, the Diesel Playhouse was putting on an adaptation of a classic cult zombie movie Evil Dead throughout the spring. When I tell people about it, they usually give me a strange "it's a musical about zombies?" look. I'm quick to point out that It can't possibly be any worse than the opera adaptation of An Inconvenient Truth (an opera about a PowerPoint presentation? Really?) Besides, how often can you say you've been to a musical and left covered in fake blood (I assume it's fake). It's like Shakespeare meets Gwar, how can this possibly suck?

The Ottawa contingent of the crew stayed at the Holiday Inn on King street, only two blocks away from the playhouse. Upon arriving, we shared the elevator with some nice ladies who were in town to see the Dirty Dancing musical at the Princess, and they asked us if we were there for the same reason. Based on my general appearance, I found this question somewhat odd. The look on their face was priceless once we told them we were going to see Evil Dead, and it led me to the conclusion that we probably wouldn't to be going down with them (in the elevator you perverts).

The East Coast Crew waiting to get Evil

After scattering to track down food and beer for later, it was time to meet up with the rest of the crew. Since we were all coming from different directions, and not everyone had actually met in person prior to this meet, the logistics of meeting up were a slight bit difficult. In fact, one of my road trip companions, Chris, called my cell to tell me he was going to meet one of the other members of the crew, also named Chris, whom he had never met previously. I said "you don't know what he looks like, how are you going to spot him on a downtown Toronto street?" His response: "He's a snowboarder." That's when it occurred to me that we snowboarders do live at a different pace than most people (skiers too). Especially in a metropolitan area such as Toronto where people seem to be in much more of a hurry and much more concerned about their image than in most places. I actually had faith, due in no small part to Chris' response, that my shred pals would have no problems finding each other. I was not mistaken, I caught up with the rest of the group in front of the hotel and we made our way to the playhouse.

The musical itself was extremely entertaining. Since it's based on the Evil Dead series of movies (Evil Dead , Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness), we were expecting a certain amount of camp, and this stage show was certainly full of it. It was done in the perfect self-effacing way which rendered it amusing rather than annoying. The actors even joked about how Spider-Man 3 was a horrible movie (Sam Raimi directed the Evil Dead movie). The highlight of the musical was the final battle at where Ash slayed all the zombies (sorry for the spoiler). I have never seen so much fake blood used in my life. It was squirting out of the walls all over the crowd. Fun times.

After the show, stoked on being evil, the crew got up to some pre-drinking at the hotel in preparation for painting the town red (with blood?). After getting nicely warmed up, we were off to find establishments to consume refreshments. Yet somehow this feat could not be managed without a tree being transplanted into the hallway to our hotel. Apparently alcohol turns people into landscapers.

After walking around for a while and ducking into a number of pubs for refreshments, along with some other random shenanigans, it was time to call it a night since the bars were closing. On the way back to the hotel, I received a text message from Chris saying that apparently someone was shot behind the princess theatre. They were cleaning up the scene as he was walking to meet his ride to Whitby. All this time, I was expecting that our musical would prove more violent than Dirty Dancing, which our lovely friends from the elevator were attending. Clearly I was mistaken on that count.

Puppet Jesus sitting at the top of the Big Apple in Colborne.

The following morning, we decided to locate a Golden Griddle we had seen the night before to have breakfast before we left. After fueling up on the all you can eat buffet and omelet bar, it was time to hit the road. On the way home, we decided to stop at the Big Apple in Colborne to buy some pies. This is where our trip took on a whole new dimension of cool when picked up an itinerant puppet with long hair, a beard, and some crazy ideas. That puppet turned out to be Jesus (or at least a very striking likeness thereof). The irony in all this is that we found him at a Big Apple which, if memory serves, is the forbidden fruit of the Genesis. Jesus was quick to participate in our road games of "hot or not" and was surprisingly good at it. Although I suppose I shouldn't be surprised since he is the son of god. In any case, Jesus is dope and he's certainly a good road trip companion, a fan of metal and a darn good dancer. When we first picked him up, he was rather subdued. Nathan even thought he was dead but we knew not to worry, "he'll be full of life in three days." It certainly didn't take three days, especially after a can of Saskatoon Beaver Buzz.

The Beaver Buzz turned out to be a bit of a mistake. Although tasty, it must contain some kind of super diaretic because it made me have to pull off the highway to pee. I was going to wait for the gas station restrooms until Jesus pointed out that the world is my gas station rest room. He's so wise. We finally made it home satisfied with our road trip shenanigans and happy for having found Jesus.

In sticking with my usual modus operandi of never walking away from an experience without learning something, here's what I learned this past weekend:

• Snowboarders are recognisable everywhere. They seem to have a different gate about them.
• Apparently the Dirty Dancing musical, counter to conventional wisdom, was much more violent that the Evil Dead musical... go figure.
• Jesus Saves... road trips. Although ours didn't need saving by any stretch. He sure made it more interesting. Keep your eye open for him, you never know where you might find Jesus.

Phew! Those are important life lessons indeed. Now I'm looking forward to my next live theatre excursion. Rumour has it that Monty Python's Spamalot is coming to Toronto in the fall, maybe I'll check that out. I'll be staying away from the Dirty Dancing musical though, that's much do violent for my sensibilities. In the meantime, I'm rejoicing in the fact that there's less than six months until winter and you can bet that I'm counting down the days.

 Add/View Comments (1)

SO far the summer has been long.. and it just started. I suppose thats a good thing, but not when its being taken over by work. Working at Wild Mtn is fun.. but when its dead then it gets incredibly boring...volleyball training is going well so far so thats good. Now all i'm waiting for are the road trips and activities along the way.  :)   -cat   

 Add/View Comments (0)

This past weekend was the Canadian thanksgiving; a time for giving thanks and for eating turkey with family. For me, visiting my folks for the holidays is a bit of a logistical headache since I live in Ottawa and my parents are nearly 800 km away in Windsor. Combine that with the fact that this time I was picking up my sister in Aurora, which makes the trip a lengthy drive for turkey.

To make the drive more pleasant, I decided to purchase one of those FM tuners so that I could listen to my iPod in the car. This way I would have the necessary eight to nine hours of consecutive music without having to flip CDs. This has the added benefit that since most of my music collection can be found on my iPod, I don't have to select which CDs to bring before I leave; I can listen to whatever fancies me at the moment (mostly).

The weekend was pretty low key and relaxed. Football being an important part of thanksgiving, I decided to check up on my Lions (being in close proximity to Detroit makes this easy). Things were looking good, they were up 10-3 at the half. This is when i decided it was time to leave. My sister needed to be back in Aurora for dinner time, so our departure window was quickly coming to a close. With care packages of leftover turkey in hand, we got in the car and made our way to the highway 401. That's when I decided that the soundtrack for our journey should be the entire Bouncing Souls discography; a glorious collection of 140 songs. So to choruses of “His name is Lamar Vannoy”, we peeled down Manning road to the 401.

Song 32: I realize that for a road trip, the incidences of insanity have been pretty much non-existent. This seems odd to me; something should be done about this.

Song 59: Still no insanity, but we're approaching Toronto, I decide we should make the requisite stop at Krispy Kreme for 700 calorie per unit goodness.

Song 68: We arrive at Krispy Kreme, my sister goes to the ladies room to be welcomed by the distinct odour of vomit. Meanwhile I'm buying a double dozen and I get a couple packs of glow in the dark stickers... boss. My sister, un-deterred by the vomit, picks a doughnut frosted like a jack-o-lantern... it's yummy.

Song 87: We arrive in Aurora, Stronach country. Maybe we'll run into Tie Domi being unfaithful... still no insanity.

I drop my sister off at home, grab a quick bite, check the sports channel to find out that the Lions in fact lost (jerks) then continue on my way to Ottawa; first south on the 404 then east on the 401... still no insanity.

Song 110: I crack open my Monster energy drink. Then stop in Marrysville to take a picture of the quarry. It looks cool all lit up at night. I wonder if I could jib it.

Song 112: I start wishing upon the stars.

Song 122: I drive by the Big Apple. Unfortunately it's closed because I wanted some pie. Plus the giant apple is cool; it makes me feel like I'm James in the giant peach.

Song 125: Someone in front of me gets pulled over; time to reduce my cruising speed.

Song 138: Johnny says he's bound by only six strings to this world. Also, I'm approaching Kingston.

Song 140: I've listened to the entire Bouncing Souls discography. I'm pleased because it occurs to me that “Here We Go” might be the best road trip song ever and it seems to be impossible to have too many “Oi”s in a punk song. I'm disappointed though, because I still have a ways to go and I'm out of Bouncing Souls. I quickly deal with this lack of continued Bouncing Souls love by putting on some Voodoo Glow Skulls... it's El Coo Cool.

I arrive in Ottawa roughly nine hours after leaving Windsor. I'm sick of driving so it's good to be home, but I'm still disappointed at the lack of amusing events on this road trip. I did learn a few things though which is important:

• The Lions suck! They're still my team but I have no reservations in stating how much they suck.

• 140 Bouncing Souls songs will get you from Windsor, through Aurora, to Kingston. Another 30 Voodoo Glow Skulls songs will get you the rest of the way to Ottawa.

• Energy drinks are yummy and encourage me to do random things like stop and take a picture of a quarry.

• Sometimes I'm boring, deal with it.

So that was pretty much my thanksgiving weekend in a nutshell. Although it seems the awesomeness factor was also on vacation this weekend, I enjoyed my time with family, and of course the turkey. I hope you all had a similarly pleasant weekend. I hope the awesomeness factor's hiatus is not too lengthy so I'll have something worth while to write about soon (I'm hoping it will be back for the Toronto Ski and Snowboard show). Until then, keep your strings only one turn out of tune.

Keep shreddin' the GNAR!

J.

 Add/View Comments (1)

I miss the winters with you, we would fly down the mountain like we owned it, for a while we did own it. No one and nothing mattered and try as they may they couldn’t stop us. My best memories of hauling ass down the mountain are those where you were right there with me. Days of powder hounding it turned into afternoons of doing doughnuts at the Meadows and in front of the school, which turned into nights at the Tap House and a race to Blockbuster to find a movie that we could make fun of. That year, you know which year I mean, that one whole year that didn’t have to happen, but did because I was a f*cking idiot, that year was torture. I hated everything and everyone including myself. But somehow, somehow we worked it out and we moved on from our devilish past to our satanic future. I remember parties at your house, mac and cheese, popcorn and Styrofoam fights. I remember racing you to school, calling you whenever I had a problem, making fun of everyone, throwing things at you during class, I remember you waking up at one in the afternoon and calling me because you knew that I had been up since seven waiting for you, shoplifting, you hitting on random people on the street and me trying unsuccessfully to be a good friend. Some mistook our friendship for a relationship, I didn’t care. Let them think whatever the f*ck they want, I liked hanging out with you and laughing so hard that I thought my sides were going to burst. If only I could tell you the shi*t I had to go through to be your friend, the people I had to go head to head with to make them understand and the people who wanted me out of the picture. Its funny how little I cared about them, I would take on the entire world with my bare hands if it meant spending my day with you. Sometimes I wondered if you had put people up to it, if you had asked them to talk to me, if you were faking it and wanted me gone. No one treated the same way you did, no one else could beat the shi*t out of me and then make me feel like the greatest person on earth. I had never met someone who I could spend all my time with and who could do the same for me. Even though I know it wasn’t the same for you, but I liked to think it was. Everyone else traded me in, left me for the new cool thing, even my friends would take off the second something better came along, but you would ignore that better thing as of to say f*ck off right to it’s face. Someone like me doesn’t get the chance to have a friend like that very often. Then one day I had a talk with another person who told me they saw you as the exact same kind of friend that I saw you as. Then another person saw you the same way, then another and another. You were best friends with everyone and what I thought was special was nothing more than a delusion of a dream world I wanted to so badly live in. I faded back, let myself pull away from you and give you the space you had probably wanted. Winter came in full force, one day we talked, and you came to visit, I was happy, but when you left I faded back again. Summer came, mother f*cker how I love the summers, I miss the summers with you. Racing people from one light to the next, road trips, hot days, crazy nights and some of the best times I’ve ever had. Summer was like rejuvenation, a reuniting of crime lords that had gone into hiding and a time I fear may be over. Summer went fast, too fast. School for you like normal, but for me something different. It was hard, at least for me, but I was immune to it, I thought I was. That letter you sent to me, that one single letter was the greatest gift I have ever gotten. Everything else in life stopped, I kept it with me for good luck. On the range, during drills, running, driving, fighting, everything and anywhere that damn letter was with me. I kept it to remind me. Suddenly it was summer again, but it would be a short summer. I remember the day I had to leave, how much I wanted to stay.

I should have stayed, even though you would have left a few days later, but that would have still givin a few more days. I left, you left. I want to go back, Will you ever come back? A 1,000 miles seemed like a million and now half way around the world seems like your gone forever. I guess I’ll fade back for the winter, we’ll see what happens in the summer.

 Add/View Comments (0)

We might of just signed a new heavy hitter to the snow team today. I'll let you know next week.

Dev's coming on the trade show tour with us this year. If by chance you're attending SIA (Vegas) or ISPO (Munich) you might be able to have a couple coldies with the man of mystery himself.

 Add/View Comments (0)

Hi everybody this is my blog about me, lol ok here goes nothing: I am Alena I have blonde hair, yup that's right I’m a blonde and you can tell by just talking to me lol (yeah I really am that dumb).  I am really not all that interesting, I do have some pretty funny stories though but they're only funny because their stupid things that I have actually done lol. I am defiantly not the brightest crayon in the box. In March I became a model but then I decided that I didn't want to be a model, yeah it doesn't make much sense but oh well, I think I am going to start modeling again because it was really fun, but I only like doing runway and I am to short to do runway so it kind of sucks but oh well. I have only ever done 2 major modeling things before I did a fashion show once and another time I was in a commercial. I use to write poetry but I stopped for a while and now I am not very good at  it I got a couple of awards for my poetry. I am defiantly not the smartest person when it comes to school (or any thing else really) lets just say that I don't have the best grades. I am defiantly addicted to orange juice. Sometimes I think that I can sing but then I get pushed back down to reality and realize that I really can't sing but that's ok. I soo can't dance at all even if I try really hard, I just suck lol. I know tons of people that live in other states, I know people in South Dakota, North Dakota, Indiana, Kansas, Washington, Illinois, Iowa, Arkansas, and I use to know some one in Wyoming but he moved back to Nebraska. I have tons of pets I have 2 dogs, 2 cats, and 2 rabbits. I have never been in an airplane before but that’s ok because I love road trips. I have like never been camping except for with my parents when I was like 7 and once with church and my parents were there so I don't count that because it sucked because they were like watching me the whole time, but the only other times I went camping was when I was like 7 I only went camping because we would go to visit family that lived far away and we didn't have a lot of money so we couldn't afford to rent a hotel or motel whatever they are called lol. I really want to go camping though it sounds like tons of fun. My parents are way overprotective I can't even go to church and volunteer or anything without my mom or dad going, it sucks so much they so don't trust me and I have no idea why and I hate it.  Not only are my parents overprotective of me but so is my brother so I am constantly having so me one looking over my shoulder and it sucks. My parents want me to be perfect and I don't want to be perfect I am not a barbie. Oh yeah and one other thing I can talk forever about absolutely nothing.

 Add/View Comments (0)