Categories
Accordion, Instrument of the Gods It Happened to Me

A Moment from Christie’s Farewell Party

The scene: The Bishop and the Belcher, a pub on Queen Street West, Accordion City. I’m there attending a farewell party for popular Toronto blogger Christie St. Martin, who’s moving to Brooklyn. I have my accordion, which I’m wearing in “backpack mode”.


Two young women dressed in punk-goth style walk past me while I’m near the bar, talking to Eva.

Woman 1 (to me): Hey, an accordion! Oh, it’s you, Accordion Guy!

Woman 2: Accordion Guy? He’s real?

(This sort of thing has happened before.)

Categories
It Happened to Me

Welcome to the World, Ryan Joseph deVilla-Choi!

Photo: Ryan Joseph deVilla-Choi, at 12 hours old.

Ryan Joseph deVilla-Choi at 12 hours old.

Yesterday at 8:57 a.m. EDT, my sister Eileen gave birth to the newest addition to the family (and third boy!): Ryan Joseph deVilla-Choi.

Eileen thought he looked like a “Ryan”, and as for the middle name,

“Joseph”? You get three guesses as to which proud uncle he’s named

after.

Ryan weight 3168 grams at birth (6 pounds, 15 ounces), and as the cliche goes, “both mother and baby are doing well.”

I visited Eileen and Ryan last night and took some photos, which I’ve placed into an album — you can view the photos in album format or see them as a slideshow.

Categories
It Happened to Me

Waiting…

Right about now, my sister should be giving birth to deVilla-Choi boy #3. More details as they come in.

Categories
It Happened to Me

Bon Voyage, Paul! / End of an Era


Paul relaxes in Deenster’s kitchen, December 2004.

My housemate Paul sets off today for a summer-long trip to Europe, where he’ll divide his time between vacationing and working on a web application called Campsite.

He’ll start off in Prague, then spend some time in Warsaw, and his final weeks will be spent in Paris. Safe journey, Paul, and may you meet someone (or hey, many someones) cute!


Paul’s departure has another dimension; it marks the end of our time as housemates, as my other housemate Rob is getting married in October and I’m doing the same in September. This marks the end of an era: my time at this address, known to some as “Big Trouble in Little China”. Paul’s stuff has been moved into storage (he’ll look for a new apartment upon his return in September) and Rob and I will move out in a matter of weeks. I’ve lived here since summer 1999, making this the longest I’ve lived at one particular address since moving out of Mom and Dad’s house. Thanks to the accordion, I’ve become a bit of neighbourhood character, and I’m going to miss being able to roll out of bed and land in one of Accordion City’s most lively districts.

While I am looking forward to moving out to share a home with Wendy, I’m going to miss this lovely ol’ bachelor pad.

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

Three Bedroom, Two Bath Downtown Toronto House Apartment — Available This Summer!

What with the departure of my housemate Paul for Europe for the summer,

my housemate Rob getting married to his girlfriend Leslie in October,

and me and Wendy getting hitched in September, the time has come for

all of us to seek new places to live. What that means is that my house,

71 Sullivan Street, Suite 1 — a stone’s throw from Queen and Spadina,

Chinatown, the AGO and loads of nightlife — is going to be available

this summer. Consider this blog entry the first announcement, with

details to follow.

Among its features, which I’ll go into detail in a later entry:

  • Lower half of historic brick house — 1st floor and basement
  • Three bedrooms — 2 decent-sized, one small
  • 2 full bathrooms with full tub/shower
  • Washer and dryer
  • Kitchen has microwave, oven, stove, dishwasher, fume hood
  • Exposed brick walls and hardwood floors in the living and dining rooms
  • Back patio leading to garage
  • The damned coolest house on the block

Here are some photos of the place, taken in 2003:

The living room, viewed from the front door, looking into the house.

The living room, viewed from the other side.

A close-up of the living room near the front of the house.

The kitchen, looking one way…

The kitchen, looking the other way.

The dining room, as viewed from one side…

…and the other.

Rent is $2100 a month. My housemates and I currently split in this fashion:

  • Bedroom on main floor (features south-facing glass wall): $835
  • Bedroom in basement (largest, 2 huge closets, built-in-shelf area): $725
  • Small bedroom in basement: $525

You pay for electricity and gas, water is currently covered by the landlords.

The expected date for this place to become available is July 15th.

Interested? Email me at joey@joeydevilla.com!

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

Found at Bay Street Video

Bay Street Video (1172 Bay Street, just south of Bloor) is one of the best damned video stores/rental shops in Accordion City.

Not only does it have a great selection of videos — many of which

you’ll never find at your local Blockbuster — but the staff are free

to make their own comments about their library:

Photo: Display card for 'Heathers' at Bay Street Video.

(And yeah, while most reasonable high school nerds

deplore the acts of those two yobs at Columbine, you’d be hard pressed

to find one of us who didn’t fantasize about visting some high-velocity lead retribution on their jock tormentors.)

Categories
It Happened to Me

Spoiler-Free Thoughts on Episode III

Just Saw the Movie

I’ve just come back from the 12:01 a.m. screening of Revenge of the Sith, which was fun to watch and will probably rate a close second to The Empire Strikes Back in my books.

Getting in was much easier than I thought. My housemate Paul bought

tickets from the nearby Festival Hall theatre at noon. He reported that

there were already a dozen people — “one of them a girl!” — lined up

outside the theatre.

We showed up at the theatre — an easy four blocks from the house — at

about 10:30 p.m.. I was expecting crowds and queues, but Festival Hall

seems to have taken a new tack. All the theatres, at least a dozen in

total, were slated to show Sith at 12:01. Rather than make people wait

in line, they simply didn’t show any movies that evening and let people

wait in the theatres. It made for a more comfortable and relaxed experience.

The Canadian Parallel

If you check the right-wing pundits, you’ll see that a number of them have commented negatively about the unsubtle jabs that Revenge of the Sith

takes at the Bush administration. Lucas handles this with the subtlety

of Ron Jeremy in a room full of porn stars and pork chops. What might

not be as apparent is the unintentional parallel to the current

situation in Canadian politics.

Telling the story of Anakin’s switching from Jedi to Sith is a tricky thing to do in two hours’ worth of movie,

especially if you’re a leaden storyteller like George Lucas. I’d have

said that Anakin’s conversion for the sake of attaining greater power

was contrived and could never happen in real life…

…that is, if it weren’t for

this week’s real-life example of Belinda Stronach making a quick and unexpected switch from the Conservatives to the Liberals, surprising even her boyfriend Peter MacKay

(the Deputy Leader of the Conservatives!). I can imagine MacKay, who’s

taking time out at his father’s farm to reflect, screaming like

Obi-Wan: “You were supposed to be the Chosen One!

Aunt Beru!

Let me just say that although she gets all of 10 seconds’ worth of screen time, Aunt Beru looks really good in this movie.  Hot. Makes me wonder why Uncle Lars is so damned grumpy. Too bad she gets killed by stormtroopers in the next movie.

Attack of the Bones

I was beginning to regret not bringing a book or magazine to kill the

hour and a half while sitting in the theatre when we found Paul’s

friends from his taekwondo class sitting several rows back. One of them

had brought a laptop and the Attack of the Clones DVD. The following is a reasonably accurate transcript of the conversation that took place as we watched the DVD:

Paul: Friend 1, you know my housemate Joey, right?

Friend 1: Accordion Guy! Hey, take a seat. Watch the DVD.

Friend 2: Joey, you know Star Wars, right?

Me: I know a few things, but some of the fans here probably know waaaay more. Like that guy dressed up as Darth Maul with the red lightsaber.

Friend 2: What’s up with Anakin and Padme? Why are they trying to stay away from each other?

Friend 1: And when do they bone?

Me: Right between Episode II and Episode III.

Friend 2: They gotta bone. I mean, I’d bone Natalie Portman.

Me: Yeah, she’s cute.

Friend 1: Dude, they have to bone — that’s how you get Luke and Leia.

Friend 2: Why don’t they bone in the movie?

Me: Because it’s against the rules.

Friend 1: Jedi can’t bone?!

Me: That’s the rule — no attachments.

Friend 2: I’ve boned chicks I wasn’t attached to.

Me: I don’t think that’s how the rule works.

Friend 1: That means a Jedi could bone if she wasn’t, like, his girlfriend or if they were married.

Me: No, I think the rule is “no boning”.

Friend 2: Jedi can’t bone? Shiiiiiiiiit.

Me: Yeah, I’d be a deadly warrior too if I weren’t allowed to bone. Cutting people and moving shit with my mind.

There’s a brief pause.

Friend 1: You sure they don’t bone in the movie?