Bye Izabelle!!

The landscape of Musique Plus changed last night as the folks at Plus Sur Commande bid a fond farewell to longtime VJ, Izabelle Desjardins. When I first learned she was leaving via MySpace (she had sent out a bulletin to everyone on her friendlist), I was a bit puzzled. After all, this girl had pretty much become the face of the station over the last couple of years. She was the first VJ I ever remember seeing when I tuned into the station in the summer of 2004. From what she’s written, she has other things that she wanted to explore, so I wish her the best of luck.

It’ll be interesting to see what will happen with this new VJ Recherchée contest that they’re running to replace Iza. I had seriously frowned on Muchmusic’s American Idol meets the Real World reality show concept a couple of years back, so I’ve got my doubts about what they’ll come up with here. But that being said, Musique Plus has always had a way of conveying its own unique character over the airwaves so I’m optimistic that they’ll find someone decent. Still, the next girl has some pretty big shoes to fill!

I had hoped that someone would have been kind enough to post some clips of her last show on YouTube, but no one has been that slick yet. So instead, I’ll post one of the videos they played during Iza’s last show. Sorry to my readers who check out this blog via Facebook, but I don’t think that the embedded video will transfer through on the newsfeed, so you’ll have to come directly to my blogsite. The song is Chewing Gum Fraise by Numéro (featuring Omnikrom). Enjoy!

Maddy's on the Office!

One of my faithful readers, who identifies herself as Lina in the comments section from time to time, has dropped the not-so-subtle hint that my blog has been on a bit of a downward turn with the various bumps I’ve been enduring in the last month between work and school. So I decided I would try and be a bit more upbeat this time and let people in on what I consider to be good news. Granted, it’s not good news for me, specifically, but I’ll live vicariously through this one anyway.

A certain number of you out there know that, over the past few months, I’ve made friends via e-mail with a lovely actress named Maddy Curley. Admittedly, she’s not a household name at this point, so don’t be too distressed if you haven’t heard of her. Her most prominent role was as a supporting actress in the film Stick It (one of my guilty pleasures) as the up-and-coming gymnast, Mina. But what has she done lately?

The answer, dear readers, is that she has been keeping herself busy with independent and short film work that hasn’t hit wide distribution. However in a little over a week, she’ll be popping up in something a bit more mainstream: NBC’s comedy The Office! When she first mentioned it to me, she thought the episode was due to air on April 19, but later said it was April 26. So just to be safe, I’ll watch both weeks (to be honest, I never watch the show, but I'm making an exception for her sake). I’m not sure how much airtime she gets or how many lines, but it’s still cool nonetheless. Good job, Maddy!

So there you have it, folks: Positive news from Al on a Wednesday. Til next time…

***UPDATE April 27, 2007*** For those who tuned in to see Maddy on the show, I'm a bit bummed to say that they cut her scenes. Perhaps they'll show up eventually in the Deleted Scenes for the episode, but given that I'm in Canada, I won't be able to verify that. I'm still proud of her anyway!

the long weekend

Well, it’s all over except for the crying. I finished the second of my night courses last evening and, though I’m not nearly as confident of the outcome as I was about the French to English class, I’m thinking I should finish with a reasonably solid B. Of course anything could happen, so I may well finish with something ghastly like a C. There isn’t an A in the running, though, as I believe that was mathematically impossible. Oh well. Onwards and upwards, right?

Today is important as I’ve got an interview down the hill. I’ve been spending the last 20 minutes or so browsing the unit’s website to see what sort of knowledge I can glean from what they’ve chosen to post. It’s interesting, to be sure. I’m actually somewhat surprised that, in total, the female population of this particular institution is roughly twice the size of the male contingent, with the notable exception of the Faculty of Management, that seems to be an even split. I’m sure there are other interesting tidbits to be found here, but I don’t have the capacity to absorb it all in one sitting. I’ll have to come back later to check things out more thoroughly.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with my travel and social schedule, I just got back from a long weekend spent in the friendly confines of London, Ontario. It was definitely an interesting trip. I had rented a car from Enterprise for Thursday and, though I picked it up about 20 minutes late, was well on my way by 3:30pm or so. I had requested a Hyundai, but got stuck with a Kia. Should I do that again, I’ll upgrade the car if offered the Kia. That thing is a horrible highway car.

Anyway, I’m within rock’s throw from Belleville, a little less than half way to my destination, when I feel something weird. There was a momentary deceleration and a bit of a shift in the car’s direction. Nothing I couldn’t handle, though, but the cars around me started to pass me. Weird, I thought. Then an SUV pulled up beside me with some lunatic hanging out the window, waving and pointing at my car. I look and see him mouthing the words, “Dude, your tire is gone!!!” so after a quick moment of disbelief, I pull over. He was right. The tire was gone. All that remained were scraps of tire, a beat-up hubcap and shiny rims. A quick look at the clock and I knew I was in trouble. It was 7:30pm.

Now at this point, Fate decides to be nice to me. As I’m on the phone with Roadside Assistance, a CAA truck pulls up. We have a quick chat and the guy offers to change my tire and gives me directions to the nearest Canadian Tire store (my best hope for getting home since everything else would be closed). I gladly accept and make it to the store with about 45 minutes until closing time. All told, I lost about 2 hours or so, but I managed to roll up to my parents’ house around 1am Friday morning.

The rest of the weekend was spent with family and friends (with the majority of time being spent at Chris and Rebecca’s house). I also managed to attend a service at Julie’s church. I’ll get into that another time. I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend! Til next time…