As you all know, it was St. Patrick's Day on Wednesday. The co-workers of Irish descent were quite chipper and wearing green, keen on going out to enjoy a drink with fellow friends and family after work. The downtown core was buzzing with party-goers, most of whom were NOT irish but falling into the "kiss me i'm irish" commercialization of the event in North America. It reminds me of university, when drinking started at 9 a.m., keggers on the streets, and lineups to the campus bar going all the way outside. It's funny b/c as i'm talking to more irish ppl, they say they it's easy to find the real irish peopl because they're the ones who actually just go out to the bar and have some drinks... NOT deliberately yelling, screaming "irish" chants, drinking green beer and decked out from head to toe looking like the lucky charms guy!

This year I went to a place completely different. It was a magazine launch, down at a Hotel near Queen and Dufferin. It was a very nice space indeed. It's always great to be walking outside with little activity about, and once you enter you are surrounded by a huge crowd of urban 20 and 30-somethings enjoying a few drinks and each other's company. I have heard that the actual hotel rooms are incredible; at $200 a night they better be!

Back to the magazine launch. It was in the lower level (which took me 15 mins to figure out I was in the wrong area!), which explains why it was called the "underground". This magazine launch was different, because it was a quarterly magazine which is performed live (perhaps one day it will be published). The Underground was set out in 2 areas - the upper bar and 3 steps down to the lower seating area. It was here where you could sit and listen to these authors read their submission outloud. To you left was an abstract painter, painting on plastic-covered walls --inspired by the readings. To your right there was a film playing (in silent). You had lots of things to keep you engaged, i can tell you that! The crowd was definitely quite arsy, with a large queer audience as well.

The theme for this quarter of the magazine was "Adolescence". Even though it's a quarterly magazine, they are planning on performing once a month, and the theme changing per quarter. So the 1st subtheme of Adolescence was "Crush" (2 more subthemes to go). Each performance was somewhat related this theme, but at times it did stretch that relation quite far!

One of the funny ones was the "ask ann landers" part of the magazine. Since it was being performed, the relationship columnist read the submissions and her answers. She walked up with a Crush soda and put up a poster entitled "Sarah, what the fuck?" :) Each submission would go something like this:

"Sarah, when my boyfriend and I are having sex, I think about the list for groceries. What the fuck?"

Heh. She would answer the question in a very funny way, and move to the next question. Some of the questions were more elaborate then others, some to do with sex, some to do why the fuck are there ____chemical ingredient in Crush Soda.!

One of the other writers was bold and read some of her old diary entries from 1982 and 1983! She was about 14-15 at the time (i think), and man, it was hilarious! Especially since this writer has been published in such places as Eye Weekly, The New York Times, Vibe, National Post, Toronto Star, and the Globe. She read old entires about her "true loves" and exposing her childhood vanity, and then gave updates of what happened years later. It was quite amazing to hear how she was in the early 80s and yet so much similar to my younger at present day! She was laughing at herself the entire time too, which was great.

Anyway, I could go on. Once I get typing, it just keeps flowing out! But It was quite a different St. Paddy's that than i'm used to, but just as memorable. Good times indeed!

Take care,

RE

"eat drink and be merry"