Month: September 2003

For your Monday musical pleasure

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date September 8, 2003
1 Comment on For your Monday musical pleasure

Please allow me to introduce Accordion Video #3 (620K Quicktime video), which is an attempt to determine what would happen if The White Stripes were to drop lead vocal/guitarist/ex-husband Jack White and replace him with the ghost of Maurice Chevalier.

To get into the mood, I drank most of a bottle of Dubonnet Red prior to recording the video. I opted to use the “musette” settings on the accordon to give it that extra-Frenchy sound.

The video was shot in my dining room on Friday night after dinner, watching my appearance on Living Romance on the W Network and lots of drinking.

You can’t see my housemate Paul in the shot, as he was slumped over the chair to my left, after having one too many sloppily-mixed Tequila-and-margarita-mix somethings. In Paul’s case, “one too many” often means “two”. We gotta toughen that boy up.

Special thanks to Meryle for handling the camera. She’s also in the video. You’ll know her when you see her.

It Happened to Me

I’m all over the W network

Somehow I get the feeling that most of you aren’t regular viewers of the W Network. However, I’m going to plug it because you’re going to see a lot of me on it for the next little while.

A little while back, the producers of the show Living Romance shot a sequence of me attempting to woo women on Queen Street West (a bohemian boutique-y street in my neighbourhood, deep in the heart of Accordion City) armed only with my accordion and my wit. That sequence was shown in last night’s episode and is also used in the promos for the show during commerical breaks.

At the risk of sounding immodest (which I’ll admit happens reasonably often), I was on. I looked pretty sharp and my ad-libs were killer. Several viewings of the tape later, I still think damn, he’s suave, every time I watch it.

You’ve got one more shot at catching the accordion schmooveness — check out W Network on Sunday at 1:00 p.m..

(I’ll get the segment digitized and find a place to put it online.)

Uncategorized

There’s always room for beer

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date September 6, 2003
No Comments on There’s always room for beer

Tom McDonald, who’s one of the good people behind Blogware, tells a classic story about the meaning of life. As with any good meaning of life story, beer is involved.

It Happened to Me

Clearly, I’m not reading enough MAXIM

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date September 5, 2003
1 Comment on Clearly, I’m not reading enough MAXIM

Otherwise, I’d be much better at telling starlets apart.

Carson set me straight: both Milla Jovovich and Sienna Guillory were at Kick Ass Karaoke last Sunday. It was Sienna whom I was backing up on Jessie’s Girl (a song that for some reason has such a forgettable verse but a memorable chorus).

In the meantime, I’ll leave you movie fanboys to compare the Kickass Karaoke photos of Sienna with this photo of Sienna in her role as Jill Valentine. (Y’know, if I were fighting zombies in the dank tunnels beneath a mysterious facility, I think I’d wear something a little more protective than a tank top and a mini-skirt.)

"I’m the real Milla, yes I’m the real Milla, and it wasn’t a fake Milla that sang with Joey deVilla…" [updated]

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date September 4, 2003
7 Comments on "I’m the real Milla, yes I’m the real Milla, and it wasn’t a fake Milla that sang with Joey deVilla…" [updated]

…or so I think.

Last Sunday, I was led to believe that Milla Jovovich graced us Kickass Karaoke regulars with her presence at The Rivoli, since some of the cast of Resident Evil: Apocalypse, which is currently shooting in town (who knew the original did well enough to warrant a sequel?), dropped by. I was later corrected by Kickass Karaoke host Carson T. Foster, who told me via email that “Milla” was in fact another actress named Siena, who bears a resemblance to her. Milla’s appearance changes quite a bit from movie to movie, and actors often look different in real life, so I thought, hey, it’s an honest mistake.

Last night, while hanging out with my friend Leila after the Bjork concert, the topic changed to Kickass Karaoke.

“Did you meet Milla Jovovich at karaoke?” asked Leila.

“I was told it wasn’t Milla, but someone else in the movie who looks like her named Siena,” I replied. “I checked IMDB but didn’t see anyone named Siena in the cast list. Maybe she’s a stunt double.”

“No, I talked to her for fifteen minutes, starting with ‘Hey! You’re Milla Jovovich!'”

“Really?”

“Yeah. We talked a lot about her name.”

So was that Milla or was Siena having a bit of fun with Leila? Celebrity experts (or obsessed fanboys) can check see these photos and decide (the Mystery Girl is in the pink shirt).

Let me know in the comments, willya?

Update

Another check of IMDB’s page for Resident Evil: Apocalypse shows a Sienna Guillory playing the part of “Jill Valentine”. Hmmm…

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Quote of the week

Uttered by a woman at a party at the 61st World Science Fiction Convention this past weekend:

“What a wide selection of available men in this room. I can have any pear-shaped guy I want.”

It Happened to Me Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Concert of the year, part 1

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date September 4, 2003
1 Comment on Concert of the year, part 1

(It’s a busy day, so today’s entries will come out in snippets. Check back regularly!)

Forget SARStock. Accordion City’s concert of the year was last night’s Bjork on the Island, which took place on Toronto’s Centre Island, a serene park environment a mere ten-minute ferry ride south of the city.

The first act was young teddy bear Asian turntablist Kid Koala, who did his usual amazing job of stitching together sound collage masterpieces — Dada you can dance to — with three turntables and a couple of cases of vinyl LPs. The highlights of his performance were:

A live remix of Tears’ For Fears’ Shout, complete with big driving backbeat with a crossfade into some Deltron
Opening a number with an old spoken word album in which the narrator described how he loved those cuddly koalas and was completely unprepared for the noise they made
His Louis Armstrong tribute, called Drunk Trumpet, in which he turns Armstrong’s trumpet solo on its ear
An extended version of his Moon River, his mother’s favourite song. She’s not a fan of his music (“too noisy”, she says), so he thought he’d try to make something she liked, and this was the result. I never thought you could ever get a field of thousands of people under 50 to groove to that song!

Koala was a last-minute addition to the lineup, and according to a friend of a friend who was on the guest list because her cousin is part of his entourage, he’d just thrown together a couple of boxes of vinyl without much planning. He admitted to the crowd that he was nervous, and although he looked a little flustered and made some funny faces the few times he made a mistake (which were inaudible), he put on an amazing show and frequently gots bursts of applause after particularly stunning “solos”. Koala’s sweet nature was quite evident, what with his soft-spoken introductions and “thank yous”, his giving a copy of his cute book Nufonia Must Fall to someone in the front row, and the way he bade the audience farewell: “Have a good night, enjoy yourseves, and be good to each other.”

Recommended reading

Update

Recommended Reading