It's here!

And the short list for the 2009 Polaris Prize has arrived! I've added the album covers for my top picks.

The 10 nominees are, in alphabetical order:

Elliott BROOD – Mountain Meadows
(Toronto, ON)

Fucked Up – The Chemistry Of Common Life
(Toronto, ON)

Great Lake Swimmers – Lost Channels
(Toronto, ON)



Hey Rosetta! – Into Your Lungs (and around in your heart and on through your blood)
(St. John’s, NF)



K’NAAN – Troubadour
(Toronto, ON)

Malajube – Labyrinthes
(Montréal, QC)



Metric – Fantasies
(Toronto, ON)

Joel Plaskett – Three
(Halifax, NS)

Chad VanGaalen – Soft Airplane
(Calgary, AB)

Patrick Watson – Wooden Arms
(Montréal, QC)

I have to admit I'm a tiny but saddened that Bruce Peninsula did not make the top 10. I am very excited to check out Patrick Watson however, who has a chance at his second Polaris.

Annnd...I had almost forgotten to add this (thanks for the reminder!), but here's the wall-hanging I made for the Phd student who recently graduated from my lab. This present was not only to say congratulations, but also to say thank-you. He hired me on when I first came to join the lab and has been very supportive throughout my time working here. This wall hanging represents one of the plots he restored with alvar plants on an abandoned Southern Ontario quarry. All of the fabrics are reclaimed from abandoned items around my house. Good thing I squirrel away every little bead, ribbon, and sparkly bit that crosses my path.



A close-up of some of the flowers:



O, and a close-up of my tiny couched signature because I like the way it turned out.

Grist Mill, Waterloo Park

Tonight Nat, Pete Kelly, and I are going on an adventure to Waterloo Park. Apparently they have fixed up the old Grist Mill and they hold events and shows there now. Tonight we are going to see a band I have wanted to see for awhile now: Bruce Peninsula. Timber Timbre is also playing tonight, along with Ben Ong from Bocce.



Rumour has it the mill only holds 70-80 people and doors start at either 7 pm or 8 pm. So, we're going to leave Guelph at 6:30 and kill whatever time we may have when we get there. The drive is easy and it's a gorgeous sunny afternoon, so we'll be fine. I suppose I'll take the second sleeve of the sweater I'm knitting today.

So it goes.

Speaking of celebrating people who have had a huge impact on the shape of society as we know it with song....

Last night we went to the eBar to take in a live show. This is a more-than weekly occurance around these parts as our little city has an excellent indie music scene. Em had found out about this 10-piece collective of musicians called Library Voices. They had traveled all the way from Regina, Saskatchewan to play for a smaller-than-average crowd of Guelph locals.



They made us get out of our seats and I started to move. Um, wow they are so good. It must take a whole lot of practice to harmonize with so many other singers and have such clean stops and starts midsong. Anyway, I really really like them and then I fell in love with them when they played one of the coolest, most clever songs I had heard in a long long time: Things We Stole from Vonnegut's Grave.





I tried to throw my money at them in support, but they had been cleared out by a bunch of teenagers whom wanted t-shirts with the f-word on them. This wasn't the t-shrit they had last night, but I couldn't find a picture of it and I'd take this one anyday.