Hooray for you, Mari Sasano.

On Saturday, we went to the City Market. It’s terrible that it’s the first time this season; things got kind of crazy there. But one of the new vendors is Mo-Na, where you can get a little bag of assorted mushrooms for $5. Aaron had brought home one of those giant packs of chicken breasts the other day, so it seemed like the two should go together.

I Googled “chicken breast mushroom” and got this recipe. It’s very simple. I’m not the kind of person who usually stuffs meat, but I might start doing more of it since it was so easy and good! The aroma of the mushrooms and garlic frying was off the hook!

On the side, I boiled some baby potatoes and salted them slightly, and sauteed some Greens Eggs and Ham rainbow chard. A nice, simple dinner that looks very fancy!

So, I live in a little house near the Stadium. Just moved in, actually. I love this little house, but what I didn’t know is that it came with an awesome neighbourhood perk: cheap-o tix to Stadium events.

Bon Jovi sent around letters to local residents:

THANKS FOR LETTING US ROCK YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD! YOU ARE INVITED TO PURCHASE TICKETS FOR ONLY $10.

Who can argue with that? I like Bon Jovi. My pal Alexis, her visiting friend and I purchased seats in section OO, which is about 7 o’clock to the stage area. It’s far, but it’s not as far as the balcony. We had a good view of the jumbotrons.

Kid Rock opened. He’s bonkers: singing lots of covers (Sweet Home Alabama, Cat Scratch Fever), he played to a perceived audience of “rednecks,” giving the crowd the finger (why did they cheer?) and doing shots of Jim Beam at the turntables. Because he scratches, remember? Also, he plays guitar and drums. Oh Kid Rock– is there nothing you can’t do? Even with his stupid hat, though, he was a real crowd pleaser. I liked it when he sang that Put Your Picture Away song. The woman accompanying him was really good. Did anyone catch her name?

Anyhow, after his set, a little break. There were lots of people there, many wearing Harley or UFC-branded items of clothing, but it was way more diverse than what you’d expect in a “redneck” crowd. Me, Alexis, and Ramona, for starters. A fairly big group of African-Canadian women behind us, and a southeast Asian contingent a couple rows down. Jon Bon Jovi knows no ethnic boundaries, nor prejudice. The Fringe is whiter. Go chew on that tidbit for a while.

It was a great show, too. Off the top, they performed a new song I didn’t know, then another. The video was kind of sweet: running inspirational phrases about hope like “It’s in our hands,” and images of strong leaders like JFK, Nelson Mandela, Lance Armstrong, and… Oprah! I screamed extra-loud for her. Then ol’ Jonny told us all nicely that we would probably prefer standing up, ’cause SHOT THRU THA HEART! AND YER TO BLAME! Giant 40,000 person singalong, whoa, that was frickin’ intense!

It’s kind of amazing to think about: these dudes have been playing and recording for nearly 30 years. Their repertoire is deep, from the ’80s stuff that I super-love, even the later hits like Always and Have a Nice Day and that Can’t Go Home song with the video that makes me cry even though it’s really cheesy. And they really deliver.

Jon Bon Jovi knows that he’s handsome, and that his teeth have special powers. He’d be all scrunchy-faced singing, then he’d peek around his mic, point at the ladies, and WHAM. That dazzling, supernaturally white teeth, and Blue Steel. He has all those rock moves, the hopping on one foot (well, he DID injure his calf muscle the other week…), the Jesus on the cross, the mugging with Richie Sambora, singing-in-the-same-mic move. At one point, giving props to his guitar man, he picked up his microphone stand and pointed it at the guitar. Yeaaaah!

It was a two hour set, and they tried to leave after Lay Your Hands on Me. But nooo! Edmonton knew that it would not suffice! Not ’til Dead or Alive and Livin’ on a Prayer! My voice got all squeaky and hurt singing along to that falsetto-pitch, owie, but worth it.

We all left completely satisfied. SWEETASS!

Oh, England! Why!

From the land of Road Dahl, Paddington, Rupert, and Winnie. These things? Seriously? Spiky cyclopses?

Vancouver did something brilliant in drawing from anime to create their uber-cute mascots, Miga, Quatchi, and Sumi. Anime, because Vancouver has a sizable Asian population, plus anime is futuristic. Vancouver is futuristic! They translated very well to a plushy format, which meant gazillions in sales. I could not get a pair of Quatchi slippers like I wanted. In fact, it was very difficult to get any mascot-emblazoned items by the time the Olympics rolled ’round!

Haven’t you learned anything from Vancouver? Oh right. I forgot. The Brits hated everything they did in Vancouver. Fools!

Where there used to be three stacked books in the shape of the letter E, we now have five coloured bars. The Edmonton Public Library has changed its identity.

To what, though, exactly? The intent is to have people see the library as more than books. This is a well-known fact to regular users, but why not just change the messaging without getting rid of a clever, meaningful logo? Libraries are still book-based, and no matter what the future of literacy holds, the history is still in books.

And to address the snazzy taglines and “Beyonce to Beethoven” commercials–  it’s going to date itself so fast! And don’t even get me started on the idea that you need to make things “cool” to attract young people. Ugh.

Rebranding is well-meaning, but there is something to be said for being recognizable and coherent. Remember when UPS changed its logo? It erased the meaning from the little crest (The little string-tied package!) and made it into something shiny and forgettable. Why, EPL? Why you too?

I’ve been trying out this new Empire Avenue thing.

It’s a marketplace for individuals’ influence. What happens is you set up a profile, then other users buy “shares” in someone with virtual money. Theoretically, this identifies the individuals who are the most influential, which will be useful information someday for advertisers, who may at some point want to actually invest in influencers to reach targeted audiences.

In the Beta, what I noticed is that people who knew each other invest in other people they knew. It was kind of a popularity contest. In the Edmonton Twitter scene, there is a group of people who know each other, on and offline, and these are the ones who did the best. I did OK, topping out at around $16 a share. The most desirable people traded at upwards of $30.

EA rewards you for being active online, so every time you post on Twitter or Facebook or make a blog entry, you get “paid.” For best results, you link to your accounts. So basically, if you are on social networking a lot, you get rewarded, regardless of what you post. I’m not sure how to feel about this.

I like social networking. I’m basically on it all day, since I work from home and do semi-creative work. A FB break every 10 minutes is nice when I’m brainstorming. But I keep my privacy settings high, and try not to share sensitive information. My level of activity is scaled to the amount of public accessibility: I’m most active and candid on Facebook, a little less so on my blog, and even less so on Twitter. Unfortunately, Empire Avenue wants me to change that. No dice, EA. If you really want the goods, you have to meet me in person.

Another weird thing is the market aspect of it. I’m not a die-hard capitalist, so it’s hard for me to quantify the value of my relationships to a number. At the beginning, I was a little sad that people weren’t buying my stock. Eventually, they did (I’m a slow dazzler!) but it was kind of masochistic seeing the numbers change hour to hour. I’m pretty uncomfortable with the concept of a marketplace for people generally, and especially when no one really makes an effort to get to know who they’re buying into. Most don’t send messages, and some don’t even bother putting up bios! It’s the least relationship-building social networking site I’ve been on. No one’s gonna be making new friends from this, which is sad.

There are interesting things about it for me, though. We are allowed to buy ads, which was where things got fun for me. Most people write a sell: “I’m trading low, so buy into X stock!” But I find that sad. Real advertising is creative and tells you something about what you’re buying. So I bought a lot of ads– PSA’s, more like, reminding people to floss at night. Things people can use. I doubt it helped, but seriously– it’s a great place to test drive your marketing know-how to see what gets click-throughs and what doesn’t. An ad I did that said simply, “Pay Attention!” actually worked. And the weird thing is that others are now copying my style of advertising. Flattering!

They’ve opened up the system a bit to more users, so if you want to be invited in, let me know. But be forewarned: it’s a little obnoxious.