I’ve wanted to make this mix for a long time. A mix devoted entirely to songs about suburban sprawl.

I grew up in the suburbs and was scarred from that experience. Well, that’s not entirely true, but it did make me realize that the way you design your community has a huge environmental footprint. Suburb communities that are structured with single use development patterns with cul-de-sacs means that you need to get into your car every time you need some milk or want to go to the bank.

This realization lead me to study sustainable community design and to advocate for walkable neighbourhoods. So it is no surprise that I ended up working at a non-profit that encourages compact complete communities.

I made this mix as a 2008 Christmas present for my colleagues. Enjoy!

(and I took this photo not too far from my mother's house. It's a sign advertising a track housing development with the hysterical tag line "A complete community close to nature." right.)

Another year, another Hillside. And it was a wet one.

Ontario had the most variable weather this summer and this weekend was no exception. It was sunny and cloudy, hot and cold and rainy all at the same time. We woke up to thunder, there were lightening strikes, including one that struck uncomfortably close to the Lake Stage. (Here’s a crazy video of the strike http://www.youtu be.com/watch?v=IQE_JbE2zRU). That was a scary moment. It was also slightly odd as I was eating ice cream with a friend under an umbrella at the time. All the rain just turned Hillside into a muddy mess. Near the end we finally gave up, took off our shoes and danced in the mud with our bare feet.

As usual, Hillside was filled with roast corn and perogies, good friends and lots of laughter (most of which directed towards Ryan and his decision to ride his Scooter to Guelph). We once again camped in the parking lot, enjoyed the local brews and soaked up the music. The only complaint was the unusually long lines for the side stages and the washrooms.

It was a predictably fun weekend and filled with amazing music. This mix is a reminder of that weekend.

Happy Hillside.

Ps – a special thank you to Eric V who helped me convert a few of these concerts… Thanks Eric!

I made this mix for my friend Kerrie who likes maps. She is a cartographer and last year she wanted to make a mix for her colleagues for Christmas with songs that have the word "map" in them. I offered her a few suggestions and ever since I keep hearing songs with that lyric. So here you go Kerrie, enjoy!

The front cover is a beautiful photo by girlhula

I love Hillside. I plan my summer vacation around the “Celebration of music and community” that happens every year in Guelph, Ontario the last weekend in July.

I love Hillside for the music, the chance to hang out with some good friends, for the community spirit, for the fact that it’s in Guelph so I get to go back there to visit, but most of all I love Hillside for it’s environmental ethic.

Hillside is possibly the best example of how to do a big event well. I think a lot of festivals could pick up a few pointers from Hillside. For starters, it’s small, there is no corporate sponsorship and it is run almost exclusively on volunteer labour. All of the food vendors are local businesses, there is a plethora of vegetarian options, and instead of disposable plates all of the dishes are reusable. You sort your garbage into recycling, composting, and dirty dishes that are washed by volunteers in a tent facing the Main Stage. The Main Stage has a green roof, one of the side stages is run off of photovoltatics, and there are various workshops on environmental, social, and musical topics. To get people out of their cars there is a fee for parking but bike parking and a shuttle bus from downtown are free. If you want a beer, you can get a local, organic, microbrew from one of the side stages, but only if you have a reusable Hillside beer mug. These mugs are seen as badges of honour, especially if you have an older mug from years gone by. If you want water you simply go to the milk truck beside the Main Stage that is filled with municipal tap water and fill up your bottle for free. This not only eliminates the waste from tens of thousands of water bottles (not to mention the bisphenol A) it also ensures that people stay hydrated in the hot Ontario summer. Which is really smart. So is their pricing. Weekend passes are about $100 but free if you’re over 60 or under 12. As a result, there is a wonderful diversity in ages at the fest. I’ve seen babies 2 weeks old and grandmas much much older. Weekend passes sell out within hours of going on sale – which is usually before the line up is fully announced.

And I haven’t even mentioned the line up. Ahhhh, the lineup! It is been consistently kick ass for the last few years. It is heavy on the Canadian Indie Rock (which I love) and in 2008 it was definitely a bit more folky/alt country. It’s all awesome though.

This cd is my musical memento from that weekend. It’s a collection of songs by artists that played, songs we were singing, or songs that are appropriate for the weekend. It’s my way to relive the fest.

A few songs I could have put on, but didn’t: “The Circle of Life” – for you Kerrie. Well, you and Mofassa. “Barking at the Moon” by Ozzy Osbourne – that would be for you Ryan. “We Didn’t Start the Fire” – our quest for not actually making our own fire, just stealing warmth from those do. “I’ve got spurs that jingle jangle jingle.” No idea where that one came from, but it was often sung during the weekend.


Happy Hillside!
www.hillsidefestival.ca

[Photos by me]

I have never been known for my punctuality. If anything I’m famous for precisely the opposite. Amongst my friends, this personality quirk has been acknowledged and accepted – at least I think it has. Friends would work around this by telling me to meet them a half an hour before our actual meeting time, or they would arrive with a book or some knitting to amuse themselves while they waited.

I’ve tried to overcome this character flaw. I’ve talked to councilors, bought numerous daytimers, and even taken books out of the library on time management – which I returned late. No joke that really happened – twice.

It’s not that I am disrespectful about other people’s time, I just have a really poor grasp of how long it takes to do things. Plus I think I can get WAAAAY more done in a day than I actually can. That and I tend to have too many projects on the go at one time and perfectionist tendencies. All of these things get in the way of getting tasks done quickly.

Admittedly, so does procrastination. And what better way to procrastinate than to create an entire mix filled with songs about procrastination, waiting, and poor time management!? I could think of no better way so here it is! No fancy descriptors this time, just the lyrics pertaining to the theme in question.

This mix is for my friend Pete. Aka, “Super Tardy Man,” from me, the “Amazing un-prompt woman!” Pete is responsible for the image on the front – I believe it was his rendering of what a superhero that battled time would dress like.

And in keeping with this theme, I actually started this mix about a year ago and have been meaning to finish it off for at least 4 months.

Again, I’m working on it.

What can I say? I like to find themes and run with them. Every song here features accordion. It’s really surprising how many songs have accordion. Then again, there was a stretch last year where every show I went to had someone playing accordion. With the diversity out there, I decided to stick to the indie/alternative rock scene and avoid the polka tunes. And no, Weird Al didn’t make the cut. The Log Driver’s Waltz done by Captain Tracker was almost on here, until I ran into space constraints and it had to go.

I made this mix in May 2008 for a boy I like who has expressed interest in learning how to play the accordion.

I hope he likes it.


(As an aside, the images came from Flickr. Thanks to pap'rocket for the cover and B Tal for the inside image)

In January of 2007 I “temporarily” moved into my cousin’s attic. That was over a year ago and I’m still here. This is partially because the rental situation in Vancouver is insane but also I really enjoy living here. There are four of us in the house along with a 3-legged, teacup Chihuahua who weighs less than a kilogram. I never thought I could love a dog you could put in your purse, but apparently I can.

My cousins are collectors of all sorts and the house is filled with the most interesting things from their travels and the thrift store. One of my cousin’s collections is a series of scales – the cover art here is one of them that I changed to match the “colour of her new life.”

2007 marked the year I turned 30 (my “almost” cougar year), the year I ran my first 10-km race, kayaked Desolation Sound, started a garden, and saw so much awesome music! Some musical highlights from the year include the last Rheostatics show ever at Massey Hall in Toronto (insert a sniffle and a moment of silence here), Bluesfest in Ottawa, Hillside Festival in Guelph, and Bumbershoot in Seattle. All this great music made it really difficult to narrow down the list this year. You’ll notice some obvious gaps, like the fact there’s no Radiohead on here (gasp!) and The Shins (which I missed at Bumbershoot due to crazy cross-boarder traffic. I’m still annoyed about that). Maybe Smith, Patrick Watson, Julie Dorion, Jenn Grant, and the Inbreds version of Dopefiends and Boozehounds also missed the cut due to lack of space.

I hope you enjoy it.

I was under a lot of stress in 2005, and the cover art is a reflection of that. My body’s response to stress is to concentrate it all in my stomach in an acidy, uncomfortable, gut burning, no-fun mess. As a result I probably drank litres of Pepto-Bismol over the year. The stress was mainly due to working around the clock to finish my thesis, coupled with my natural inclination to be neurotic and stressed out. Then in November when this mix was almost finished, my father had a stroke and passed away about 10 days later. Hence the somber tone of the first two songs. When I listen to this cd, I tend to start it on track three. I still have a hard time listening to the first two songs as they take me somewhere I don’t normally want to go.

I like tea. I like coffee. One day I was sitting at Calhoun's coffee shop working on my thesis and I realized there are actually quite a few songs on the subject. That began my quest and collection of songs that feature caffeinated beverages. My intention was to create a caffeine mix and present it to the kind folk at that coffee shop as a thank you for letting me linger for hours on end. But I that was 2 years ago and I never got around to it. Then, I was looking for prizes to give out at a tea party that my cousin is having and I found the motivation to finish the mix. The tea party will feature croquet, butter tarts, cucumber sandwiches, a stilt walking violin player and prizes (i.e. this mix) for the best hat. Which is something else I have to do today, find a hat. (As an aside, I'm feeling slightly lame with this mix as I've put about 4 of these songs on other mixes... oh well, they're still good!)

I put together this mixed cd to commemorate a friend of mine getting his permanent residency visa (he's from the states). It's a collection of Canadian bands I love, from high school to now. This cd was dispersed at a kick ass Canada party for the said friend, and came as a two cd set in a package resembling a passport (two cds b/c I refused to put on Rush, so another friend did the honours).

The cover art for this CD is a painting by Group of Seven artist Frank Carmichael. It was at the Thomson Gallery at the Bay in Toronto (I'm not sure if that gallery is still in existence). I was so entranced by how shimmery the water was, I had to snap a clandestine photo. shhh...

This CD is a commemorative album from the Italy and London trip that Kerrie and I made in the summer of 2006. We were in Italy for the wedding of our good friends Mona & Steve, which took place on Lake Como. We spent the next two weeks touring around Italy. These were the songs that marked that journey…

Every year I make a mixed cd and give it out to friends and family at Christmas. This is my version of the annual Christmas newsletter. It's filled with songs from bands I saw live this year, albums I bought or were introduced to, or tracks that were significant for some reason or another to me during year. Enjoy!