I officially declare this week to be simply called sleepy week. Coming home late last night and ultimately crashing at around 01:30 is not helping me at all. I woke up at 07:10 this morning. Both my parents were up this morning, probably thinking that I'd need some assistance from them. Luckily, I heard my clock radio go off.

It's Remembrance Day. The unfortunate thing is that I've moved to a province where it is not a provincial holiday. It's been scrapped for decades. I can remember it being a holiday when I was in elementary school, and then it wasn't. All through high school, there would be ceremonies over the PA system at 11:00. Manitoba has it right. Remembrance Day should be a holiday to respect those who have served this country and reflect on what they have given to us. We take that for granted often.

I probably became more nationalistic when I decided back in November of 1998 to take a trip to Ottawa. I happened to be there for the ceremonies that were held on Parliament Hill. I stood there for an hour or two, watching all the veterans march with pride. It was moving to see veterans in wheelchairs march down the road, determined to get to Parliament Hill. There was lots of singing. Prayers were read, too. Our Prime Minister at the time, Chrétien, made a brief speech. It made me think how lucky I was to be there to honour our soldiers, past and present. I was grateful for being forced to take Canadian history in high school. It hit me hardest at that moment. Even if Remembrance Day is not observed as a provincial holiday in Ontario, I hope that schools consider doing a field trip to whatever ceremonies are present in their communities. It's important. I've realized this as I get older and come to my senses.

It's fitting that I move to discussing my experience at the R.E.M. concert last night. Michael Stipe mentioned Remembrance Day during the show. His father had served in the Vietnam war and one other battle, but that escapes my mind right now. You could tell that he was so proud of his dad.

My thoughts are all over the map today. I'm tired. Don't bug me about it.

I'll get the memes out first, and then I'll get to R.E.M. Here is today's Theatre Thursday:

1. Which war movie is your favourite? (Nothing about war could be considered a favourite, but ya get my meaning.)
   Does Forrest Gump count? That came to mind first. I liked Courage under fire. I don't watch war movies much.

2. What movie about war do you consider to be 'unwatchable', poorly done, or of poor taste?
   I wasn't big on the opening of Saving Private Ryan, if my memory serves me correctly. I get sick when scenes are shot using a handheld camera. All the jerking and such makes me dizzy. I generally can't handle that. Once that was over, I was fine. It wasn't a bad flick. I just couldn't watch the beginning of it.

3. Which actor/actress gave the best performance as a soldier? What movie?
   Saving Private Ryan had excellent acting from a number of soldiers... you could pick any one of the brothers, for instance.

BONUS: If there was a movie to be made about the current war in Iraq, who would you most like to see as the leading man/woman?
I'd choose Tom Cruise as the leading man (he did a good job in Born on the Fourth of July, so why not here?) or Queen Latifah as the leading woman (think of her role in Chicago, but without the singing... she can handle it).

I can't forget doing the Thursday Threesome:

1. Onesome: World-- Okay, you've been here; you've been there. ...or maybe not. Is there someplace you think it would be cool to spend a holiday? Christmas in the Alps? St. Patrick's Day in Erie? Oh, sure, take the entire family if you'd like!
   I have a lot of places I'd like to see. I still want to travel east of Quebec, and say that I've seen Canada from coast to coast. I'd love to visit Halifax. Every time I watch CBC News Morning with Colleen Jones reporting from her hometown, it makes me long to travel there. It's beautiful. Away from Canada, I still want to visit Great Britain, particularly London and Manchester.

2. Twosome: Weary-- Have you ever had to deal with jet lag? How have you handled it? ...and which direction is worse for you, going east or going west? Just curious...
   Yes, it was pretty bad when I went to Hong Kong years ago. The time difference was twelve hours between Toronto and Hong Kong. It took a couple of days for me to switch. I think coming back was worse, so going east seems tougher for me.

3. Threesome: Traveller-- When you've travelled, what conveyance has bothered you the most? That camel in Morocco? The train ride through the Rockies? Your brother-in-law's Dodge? What just set your nerves on edge?
   I'm thinking it was this tiny Wasaba plane that flew me from Minneapolis to Rochester. The flight was about twenty minutes in length, but it seemed longer. You had single seats on each side, it was noisy, and you felt like the wind was going to take you where it wanted you to go. I suppose that experiencing some turbulent conditions on that flight did not help, either. Luckily, the planes are bigger on that route. Well, it was where I last flew it over a year ago.

I left work immediately after 17:00 last night to drive down to a Chinese bakery that I remember liking. It took me roughly forty-five minutes to drive perhaps 3 km. I thought that I'd take Birchmount Road, for you can't get on highway 401 from it. I was thinking less traffic. Boy, was I completely wrong!

Just south of Huntingwood, Birchmount was closed. I could see several police cruisers with their lights all swirling around. Something serious must have happened. Yep, I found out this morning that there was a drive-by shooting. As a result, I had to travel along a north-south street that had ramps to and from the highway.

Even before all the traffic mayhem, I was thinking that if I got to that Chinatown by 18:30, that I was making great progress. I did indeed get there at 18:30. I found a decent parking spot close by. One swoop for me to parallel park the car. I was so proud. Anyway, I visited two bakeries. The first didn't have much, but the woman was nice there. I bought a couple of items. I could tell that she didn't know which language I'd understand. She started off in Cantonese by asking me what I would like to buy, and then immediately said the same thing in English. So, I went with the Cantonese. I think she liked that.

I then went across the street to get a number of steamed pork buns. I love them. One of the workers spoke both English and Cantonese. The other only spoke English. I mixed it up there. I got the goods. I was such a happy camper.

I proceeded to drive downtown, finding a garage on Church Street. It was bright and only accepted credit cards. That worked out nicely. Little did I know that exiting the garage, the Hummingbird Centre was steps away. It was staring right at me.

The difference seeing a concert in Toronto at a fairly decent-sized venue is observing everything that is going on outside it. There was a musician singing R.E.M. songs while strumming his guitar. There were at least twelve scalpers asking me if I needed tickets or if I wanted to sell mine. The Edge 102.1 was sponsoring the event, so there were signs all over the place. It's lively and folks are happy to be there. It a part of the city's charm.

The Hummingbird Centre is nice. It's similar to the Winnipeg Concert Hall, except without the loges. Instead, the balcony extends up for what seems to be a mile. There's wood panelling on either side of the stage. You get the bar and food services, too. I bought a huge chocolate chip cookie. I was hungry. Oh, and you still see references to its old name, the O'Keefe Centre, in the main lobby.

I got my R.E.M. t-shirt. It has a black background, with white and blue colours on both the front and back. All tour dates are on the back. It's a lovely shirt. It fits nicely. It's not so tight that I can't breathe in it, and it's not so long that it becomes a short dress. It's perfect. Even better was that the shirt stands accepted both debit and credit cards. That was helpful.

I guessed where to enter. The usherette (I hope that's a word) greeted me and asked how I was. I said, "I'm lost," for I didn't know where my seat was. She laughed and helped me out. Apparently, it was right in front of us. How about that! I dropped my roll of mints. The carpeting there has quite the bounce. I had to walk down several steps to retrieve it. Funny how beer is not permitted where all the seating is, but I saw folks bringing in wine and that seemed to be fine. Isn't it worse to get wine stains out than beer? Perhaps the thinking there is that more folks drink glass after glass of beer (cheaper in price, too) more than wine and it's more of a concern about having intoxicated folks going over the balcony? I don't know.

The two people next to me were friendly and were taking pictures of each other on their cellphone. They were clearly friends. The guy seemed like a gentle soul. The girl called her boyfriend on the phone to say that she loved him. That was sweet.

Michael Stipe came out at 19:30. It is rare for someone from the main act to introduce the opening one. I had never seen that before until last night. It was a classy thing to do.

So, the show started with Joseph Arthur. I was saying to myself last night that I'd have a difficult time remembering his name today. Give me two names that can pass as first names and it become a cruel, challenging memory game. Again, I'm horrible at describing what artists I've never heard of sound like. His voice and music was like a mixture of Leonard Cohen ("The future" played before the show, by the way), Jeff Buckley, Bob Dylan, and Simon and Garfunkle. He was a one-man band, singing, playing his guitar, keyboard, some pink gizmo, and quite a number of electronics. He was good. He didn't say much. His songs did all the speaking for him.

There was a bit of a break after that. Folks were civil in my row, although it gets annoying when folks have to get up while there's a show going on. At least it was brief.

So, R.E.M. came out. The stage had lights dangling from the ceiling. At one stage, they reminded me of those rocket popsicles (white, red, and blue layers that look like rockets). The set was simple. Simple is good.

As most folks know, Michael Stipe is not known for being a good dancer, but his moves are unique. It was neat to see him stand on various speakers at the front of the stage, look out into the crowd, and nod along with the beat. I liked when he took off his blazer and accurately tossed it on his music stand. I enjoyed seeing him toss his songlist sheets into the crowd. You appreciate his stage presence.

Seeing R.E.M. live, you also appreciate how talented Mike Mills, both as a singer (he the lead in "Don't go back to Rockville") and a musician (his piano playing in "Electrolyte" comes to mind here). Michael introduced Mike on a couple of occasions. The former is genuinely a gracious man. Frankly, I think the entire band is that way, inviting Joseph Arthur to sing and play guitar when Mike was the main vocalist and he was invited to play guitar in the "Permanent vacation" and "I'm going to deejay" finale.

I'm shifting gears here, but it'll make sense. On my lunch break yesterday, I revisited Future Shop. My parents are thinking about getting a new TV set, so I thought I'd browse the different models there. I managed to visit the Gameboy section and saw The Incredibles game. I might buy it soon. It looks like fun and I think I can handle playing it.

The frontman of the band is quite funny. Michael had metallic eye paint on, which made him look like he was wearing a mask. He joked, asking if folks thought that he looked like a character from The Incredibles. I had thought about it initially, I must admit. He said something like, "Those Hollywood f*ckers stole my look and I'm pissed off about it." He has a point, though. He's been doing the eye thing for at least a couple of years by now. He had a striped shirt on (red stripes on white) that was left untucked. There was a silver chain over his right front pocket. He wore white sneakers and a dark blazer. He's such a skinny guy, and being in dark colours enhanced that fact even more.

I mentioned to a few folks recently that I found the band's new CD, Around the sun to be sluggish in pace. The tempo doesn't differ much between songs. Probably half the songs off the CD were sung last night. Let me tell you that the songs come to life on stage. "Leaving New York" was poignant. I enjoyed "High speed train". Perhaps it helped that the new songs were tossed in with all the goodies. So, I listened to the new CD last night. It does grow on you.

I enjoyed the encore. They did five songs! Michael changed into a long-sleeved white shirt. Of note, "Man on the moon" was the crowd participation song, with everyone singing, "yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah" throughout it. It was a lovely moment, especially when Michael yelled out, "Are you having fun?" in an Elvis tone. I stood up when they sang, "What's the frequency, Kenneth" because the huge guy in front of me had stood up. He then sat down, but I didn't. It has taken me so long to figure out what the lyrics are to that song. I was pleased with myself that I knew them last night.

It was a terrific concert. I had expected to see them at a larger venue for some reason, but all was good in the end. I knew about a third of the songs. That's not bad, considering that I heard a couple of guys say that they had only recognized three of them when everyone was walking out of the place. I'd definitely see R.E.M. again. You can tell that the band has an appreciation for Canada. Michael said that he spoke to his parents on the phone the other night, and they wanted to see him perform in Canada. They want to visit this country. The band likes this country, too. After all, they recorded their latest album on the west coast. I believe the band heads to Ottawa and Montreal, before it goes to Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, and visits the west.

After the show, I ended up with a number of freebies:

• An iron-on patch that says "William Shatner is no has been". The guy who handed it out pronounced iron with a hard r. It was weird. Maybe I've been saying it wrong all these years? The saying also need a hyphen between has and been.
• Franz Ferdinand and Modest Mouse bumper stickers. The latter band's sticker looked the image on Guster's Fly CD. That was neat.
• An Andy Stochansky sample CD called Shine. I recognized the name when my friend and human guide to music mentioned him a couple of years back. I'm not completely living in the dark, which is a good sign.
• Joseph Arthur's Our shadows will remain promotional CD that had HMV's logo at the back.

I visited a local grocery store to get a bottle of Perrier with a hint of lime in it. It hit the spot. That store does a huge business after shows. There must of been fifteen people in the checkout line by the time I had left.

So, there are benefits to using a credit card to park. Those with tickets had to use the one machine to pay. There was quite a lineup. I just found my car, drove to the exit area, put the same credit card into the machine, and drove off. Five dollars for parking is a fair, too.

Driving home was pleasant last night. I took Church Street to swing on over to Front Street, and got on the Gardiner-DVP. I got home in roughly twenty minutes. Mind you, you'd get home faster than expected if you were going 118 in a 90 km/hr zone, too. There were lots of people on the roads, but it was moving. I like that.

Call me yawny girl today. I hope to make it through the day and then crash when I get home. I'm sleepy, but I'm happy.

At work, we had a moment of silence at 11:00. My workplace has class, too.

|

Song that's stuck in my head: R.E.M.'s "Leaving New York"
Yummy food eaten today: Onion-flavoured cheese
What I crave: Sleep! What else?!

Recent thoughts:
Readings, lights, and random thoughts - 2009-03-15
Thoughts about work, school, and peeps - 2009-03-09
Working from home and a mini life update - 2008-12-19
The weekend is here! - 2008-01-06
A new year - 2008-01-01