Okay, election results are in, and I'm pretty happy - we've got a Liberal minority, which might be the best thing we could have ended up with. I just really wish we had some form of proportional representation. Look at the results now:
Liberal - 135 seats
Conservative - 99 seats
Bloc Quebecois - 54 seats
NDP - 19 seats
Now, under a proportional representation system, it would look like this:
Liberal - 113 seats
Conservative - 91 seats
NDP - 48 seats
Bloc Quebecois - 38 seats
Green Party - 12 seats
Other - 6 seats
Wouldn't that be a better representation of how the country actually voted? Why is it fair that the Bloc gets 18% of the seats when only 12% of the country voted for them? And the NDP only gets 6% of the seats, when 16% of the country voted for them?
Anyway, it will be interesting to see how the parties are able to work together in the new parliament.
On one more political note, I did go see Fahrenheit 9/11 on opening night, and it was absolutely fantastic. I cried (hard) on two different occassions, and felt sick to my stomach at other times. I'm so happy the film is doing so well, and I really hope it will make a lot of Americans think long and hard before they vote this fall.
I also wanted to share some pictures from Karen's wedding! These are just some preliminary ones - I'll have more of my own later!
Karen and Ian outside the church
Casa Loma on the day of the wedding
My favourite picture of Karen
Karen and Ian at the banquet
June 24, 2004
Time: 7:26 p.m.
Song playing: "Ich will dir nur sagen" - Elisabeth
Hello! I am alive, sort of. :-) After I wrote last week, I ended up coming down with a really brutal cold/fever that kept me home for nearly six days. I went to work Thursday morning but left early, then stayed home all day Friday and Saturday. Sunday I went out to Karen's wedding, then went to work Monday morning, but left early again, and stayed home on Tuesday. I'm finally back at work now, but still not feeling totally better. :-(
So, despite the amount of time that's passed since my last entry, I really have relatively little to update. I was so weak and tired while at home, I couldn't muster the energy to do more than watch TV, and there was nothing on during the afternoon but the Euro soccer, so I watched much more soccer last week than I have watched in my entire lifetime before combined.
Anyway, Karen's wedding on Sunday was a lot of fun! Michelle drove me out to Etobicoke for the ceremony, which was at a very nice church. Everyone looked great, and Karen's "Woo!" at the end of the service made me laugh. :-) They had a little reception out on the lawn of the church afterwards, and then Michelle, Jenn and I went back to Michelle's place for a while, until the reception at Casa Loma. After arriving there, we hung out in the gardens for a while, and then the dinner was in the library. Everything was beautiful, and the meal was really good! There was dancing later, and tea in the conservatory, and I caught the bouquet! :-) All in all, it was an absolutely lovely day, other than Karen's dad making us all cry with his toast!
When I finally got back to work yesterday, it was time for our party at Skydome in the evening, which we enjoyed as well, but not quite as much as last year. There was no ice cream, for one thing! But the Jays won (they've won both times I've gone this year even though they suck in general - coincidence?), so we did get fireworks. We were home fairly early, which was good, since I'm still trying to catch up on sleep. I can't wait for the weekend!
My mom might be coming out to see me! She doesn't have a flight yet, but we're hoping she can come for the last few weeks of July. That would make me so happy.
Fahrenheit 9/11 opens tomorrow! I'm soooooo excited. I can't wait to see it!
And if the Conservatives win the election on Monday, I don't know what I'm going to do. I've voted Conservative in the past, but this new party really frightens me. Could we end up with our very own George W. Bush??? At least we don't have enough military to actually go invading countries on our own...
Some little updates to the Scotland trip site.
Updating two days in a row! Are you afraid yet? :-)
I'm just posting 'cause Jenn got her pictures from New York developed, and there are lots of fun ones (hers, unlike mine, are mostly of people, not buildings), so I thought I'd share a few of them!
Peggy, Susan and me with an airline pilot we met along the way
Me and Peggy waiting at the Wicked lottery on Saturday afternoon
We didn't get Wicked tickets, so here we are at Fiddler instead!
A little post-show fun! At Culture Club
Jenn on 45th Street (you can't really see it, but she's pointing at a sign that says "See a Broadway Show Just for the Fun of it")
Peggy, me and Jenn, back at the Wicked lottery
We didn't win again, so here we are at Bombay Dreams
I need a weekend. I realize it's just Sunday evening, but this weekend was so crazy, I haven't had much of a chance to do any of the things I wanted to accomplish, like answering some of my email, starting to read my insurance book (for which I have to write an exam in three weeks), or playing with my time-limited Flash demo (you can see the results of my first couple of days of playing on the Ethan Freeman Website).
I did manage to wash my floors, do some laundry, and of course, spend a lot of time with friends. Saturday was Karen's stagette, or bachelorette party, which lasted from about 2 in the afternoon until 1 in the morning. We started at the Docks, where we were supposed to do various activities, but ended up mostly just sitting on the patio and drinking (sunburn #2 of the summer for Stacy :-( ), and then after dinner we went downtown to a couple of bars/clubs for the rest of the night. We got Karen to do some embarrassing things, which she did very well, and overall had a really fun time.
Then, after not nearly as much sleep as I would have liked, Jenn and I got together this morning to get tickets for Urinetown, which we went to see together with two other girls after a nice brunch and stroll around the outdoor St. Lawrence Market.
The theatre was soooooo empty again today, I don't understand why people aren't going to see this show! Not even the rush seats were sold out!! :-(
I went down to Song & Script on Thursday to buy the Taboo CD for the winner of my Tony contest, and they didn't have it! I made the trip all the way down there, to try to support them, and they were sold out. The guy tried to talk me into reserving a copy from their next shipment...he's all like, "You won't find it anywhere else in Toronto". So I'm supposed to go out of my way another time to go get it, when I can order it a million places online? Don't think so.
That's about all that's going on, other than work, which has been so busy lately. And on top of that, I don't like my new desk at all, it's so dark, away from any natural light, it makes me depressed just sitting at it. I'm already dreading going there tomorrow.
Here's a picture of me and Jörn's mom, Marlene, from when Jörn's parents were here in Toronto a few weeks ago. Too bad it's so dark, but you get the idea. :-)
Yay, Tony's! Last night's show was great. I was wrong about quite a few awards, but I've never been so happy to be wrong. It seems like, for once, the awards were actually given to those who deserved them - not so much politics, just really good voting. Hooray for Idina! And Michael Cerveris! And Avenue Q! I have to admit, I was really quite surprised that it won over Wicked, but I don't have any problem with it. They're both deserving, and it's not like Wicked needs any help selling tickets. This should be great for Avenue Q.
My favourite quote of the night actually came from the pre-show thing, when "Officer Lockstock" and "Little Sally" were reminding everyone of the rules for the evening:
"I thought you were straight."
"A lot of people in the musical theatre are straight until they meet Hugh Jackman."
Hee! And speaking of Hugh, how wonderful is he? Such a talent, and so real. I hope he does much, much more theatre.
I am probably the only person in North America who cried, "Franz Joseph!" when they showed Michael Shawn Lewis sitting next to John Tartaglia. ;-)
I also loved Michael Cerveris mentioning Douglas on the red carpet - if he'd mentioned him in his acceptance, it would have been even cooler, but I can live with that. :-)
Anyway, just a great evening. I'm looking forward to re-watching the performances, all of which I thought were quite well done, except perhaps Wonderful Town - I can't help but feel there was a better number they could have done. But the rest were great!
Quickly, before I go, I need to also respond to Karen's journal entry about The Producers. I just had this exact same conversation with a woman at work, and I think it bears repeating. When it comes to The Producers, there are really two versions of the show, and I don't think they can be compared. Version one is the original cast, and version two is any other cast in any other production, anywhere. It is really that much of a difference. So if you see the show in Toronto, or LA, or maybe even someday in Berlin, you can't compare it to the hype that was created by the original cast. It's a completely different beast. There was simply an energy, a magical intangible quality about that original cast, that left the entire audience absolutely giddy. Ben Brantley raved about it! I came out saying, "That's the best show I've ever seen!", simply because I have never felt such a part of a theatrical experience before. Then, I saw the show in Toronto, and it was, meh. It's okay. But it's almost a completely different show. With Nathan, you laughed at his first joke. He hit the line exactly right every single time. The other two Max's I've seen didn't get any laughs at all with the entire "King of Broadway". The role was designed with Nathan in mind, and there aren't many who could live up to him. It was just an instance where all the elements necessary for a great performance came together perfectly, something that can never be re-created. So I don't mind if people see it now, and say, "it's not so great", because if you see it now, it's not. But you must believe me when I say that almost all of the hype for the original show was well-deserved.
Okay. Off my soapbox now. :-) And off to work!
Today was Karen's bridal shower! Hard to believe the wedding is in two weeks. I guess that means I have to find something to wear. :-) Anyway, we had fun, and she liked the present from me and Jenn (a snow cone maker!), so it was all good. Even if I did have to go all the way to Mississauga for the shower, which meant I was gone from the apartment for nearly 10 hours! A little bit longer than I was expecting! So now I don't think I'll get around to editing my musical site tonight, it'll probably have to wait until tomorrow.
What else went on this week? Well, we went to the horse races on Wednesday, which was interesting, something I've never done before. I didn't bet any money, but Susan and Karen did, and Karen actually won some! It was fun. It's the time of year for our summer parties with our vendors at work, so we've got a cruise next week, another cruise the week after that, and then the party at Skydome that Susan and I had such fun at last year. Can't wait!
I've also just been working a lot - putting in 9 hour days and stuff, since there's so much to do. I might actually go in tomorrow too, though I really don't want to - we'll see!
I think living with Laurie is a bad influence on Jeremy, in terms of updating his journal.
And of course tomorrow night is ... TONY'S!!!! Yay!! I'm thrilled with the musical numbers they've picked, and all the presenters (Victor Garber, yay!), and it should be just a fantastic show. And, just so you can all laugh at me when I'm wrong, I offer my Tony predictions (for the musical categories...I can't make very many intelligent guesses when it comes to the plays):
Best Musical
My vote goes to Wicked. I think Avenue Q might be close, but Wicked should win it.
Best Revival of a Musical
Assassins. No questions, in my opinion.
Best Book of a Musical
Winnie Holzman for Wicked - the way she adapted the story from the novel is amazing...not to mention funny and touching as well!
Best Original Score
I'm gonna say Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx for Avenue Q here. If not them, it'll be Stephen Schwartz for Wicked, but I think Avenue Q has the best chance here.
Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical
Hugh Jackman. Duh.
Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical
Tough one! I'd love to see Idina get it, but I think the votes for her and Kristin might cancel each other out. So I'm actually going to say Tonya Pinkins, but I won't be sorry if I'm wrong!
Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical
Raúl Esparza for Taboo. Didn't see it, but I heard great things about him in this show. Again, I think the Assassins guys might cancel each other out.
Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical
Another tough one, but my pick goes to Isabel Keating for The Boy From Oz
Best Direction of a Musical
Joe Mantello for Assassins. I was surprised he wasn't nominated for Wicked as well, so I really think he'll get it for Assassins instead.
As for the others ... I think Assassins should win lighting, and possibly scenic design as well. Costumes should be Bombay Dreams, but I have a feeling they won't win, so I don't really have a pick for that one. And orchestrations, I'll go with Wicked.
So, as you can see, I think the awards will be pretty spread out among different shows this year. We'll see if I have any idea what I'm talking about! :-) Enjoy the show!