Girls Guide to Being a "Plus One"

Jim Vallance with Billy Talent

What's a "Plus One"? Well if you guessed it had to do with size, you can guess again. Being a "Plus One" is the very important job of providing accompaniment to friends in positions where they can afford you.

Now, the life of a plus one seems glamorous on the surface. You get luxurious expense account dinners, entry into sold out shows, and free CD's. You get to meet famous people in exotic recording studios and in dingy clubs. You never pay for drinks and you get to hang out with cute cute boys.

Now before you get all excited and look for someplace to sign up, I must warn you of the perils.

Being a plus one means never sleeping. Yup, you often don't get home until dawn, and as a not so VIP, you'll probably will miss your sleep. I know I do.

You'll need to be able to run interference at the drop of a hat. Is your friend involved in a conversation they need rescuing from? You'll need to come up with an urgent excuse. Do they not want to talk to someone? You'll need to look like you are deep into an enthralling conversation. Does your friend need an excuse? You’ll need to be able to lie quickly and with authority.

When you go see a band, and you hate them you’ll have to stay. When you go see a band and you love them, you’ll have to go.

Last but not least, your friend will want to stay with you.


Of course I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It’s a job I was born to perform and I think I do a damn fine job of it.

Why I like Hockey Pools

I love Hockey. I love the Vancouver Canucks. I love Todd Bertuzzi, but this post isn't about that. It isn't about what I think about the new rules, like the shootout (love it) or what I think about the Canucks chances for the Stanley Cup (undecided). It's about the time honoured tradition of hockey pools and why I like them.

It's easy for a girl like me to like the Vancouver Canucks. Simply put, the Canucks are by far the cutest team in the league. Todd, Brendan, Markus...any one of them would make my Freebie Five.

What isn't easy, is loving the home team when they're down. I'm not panicking yet. It's early in the season but the boys don't really seem to be firing on all cylinders. This despite the fact that we are #1 in the Northwest Division at the moment.

This is where Hockey Pools come into this hockey fans life. Unbelievably, there are other teams besides the Canucks. 28 in fact. Now normally I wouldn't care about any of them but the hockey pool changes all that.

Hockey pools come in a variety of styles. The popular "draft" style is most suited to the fan who follows all the teams and who actually know stats, but I'm not that kind of fan, so I like the pick and choose pool style. Pick two players from each square of 6 players and you'll be awarded points on how they do.


Now it's not just the Canucks and "Them". Now I'm excited watching the sports highlights and seeing East Coast American Teams. Go Jagr! Way to hustle Sullivan!

Now I'm pretty sure I won't be collecting any winnings. Early in the season we are in 30th place with several injuries. (At least we didn't pick Brett Hull). It doesn't matter though. What matters is that following hockey has become a more enriching and fun experience. GO AERO STARS!!!

Blond, James Blond.

Did you know that in every article I read today it mentioned the fact that Daniel Craig will be the first blond James Bond? Every single article!!!!!! Honestly, I wouldn't even call him blond (he's no Owen Wilson). Other descriptions were "fair haired" or "sandy haired". Which begs the question, does this actually matter to people? Obviously it does, as proved by my mentioning it. The other little bit of trivia mentioned in most articles is that Daniel will only be the 2nd Englishman to play 007 (Roger Moore being the other).

But let's get to the heart of the issue. Is Daniel Craig the right man for the job????? I have to say I'm not convinced.....but I'm not upset either. I've only seen him in TombRaider and I liked him. I haven't managed to see Layer Cake yet but have heard very good things about him in that film. My one complaint is that he's looking a little old for this movie. I say this only b/c it takes place when James Bond is young and first becomes 007. It's "The Hobbit" of James Bond movies. So I will reserve judgment until the film actually comes out.

Here is my wish list for the new James Bond (just in case Mr. Craig doesn't work out)-

*Gerard Butler - Lara Croft's other boy toy


*Eric Bana - maybe too pretty?


*Hugh Jackman - I LOVE YOU!


*Robbie Williams - was always a long shot but just oozed young Sean Connery!



The most important thing is that the following actors did not get offered the job (all were rumoured to be newest Commander Bond at one point in time) -
*Orlando Bloom - great as Legolas & Will Turner but not as a super suave super spy
*Colin Firth - Mark Darcy / Mr. Darcy......enough said
*Hugh Grant - ummmm, no
*Colin Farrell - too dirty
*Jude Law - not such a cad now that it appears SM had a little affair of her own

EW Hates Celebrities

The following takes place between 8:00 - 9:00am on the day of the California presidential primary. All events occur in real time. Sorry. What I meant to say is that this is part of an email between myself and the girls at "Go Fug Yourself".

Me: Have you seen the newest EW cover? Is it just me or is Sheryl Crow looking
very scary and very masculine????? I love the magazine but am constantly horrified with the pictures they choose for their covers.

Heather & Jessica: I KNOW! Their photo editor is EVIL.

This is something that I would be concerned about if I was a celebrity. You're talented, beautiful, famous and getting a cover shot on a very cool magazine. Then your cover shot turns out like this.

Are you upset? I would be. But maybe they think they look good. Maybe they have people telling them that it's a great picture. Maybe they're too important to even look at the picture. Whatever the case may be I feel that the EW photo editor has a split personality. Or maybe she (he) just has a serious hate-on (world stolen from Lainey) for certain celebs.

But all is not bad/scary in the land of EW covers.

-I would just like to say that even though I do really like this picture of Tom Cruise (and honestly have LOVED him in the past) I am still totally grossed out by his "relationship" with Katie/Kate Holmes and their alien love child.
-This is not the best picture of Orlando but I think Kirsten looks excellent and they look good together. Unlike some very forced pictures we've seen on their covers in the past.

Save Kitchen Confidential!

So today I was reading through my copy of EW (which I love - thanks Keri) and found an article on one of the first casualties of the fall TV season. It was about how "Head Cases" was cancelled after only two shows. Head cases? My reaction exactly. Who cares? But what got my heart rate up was seeing their "endagered list". Listed front and centre was KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL. An immediate email was sent to Keri (who got me hooked on the show in the first place) and we decided something must be done. First plan - sign someone elses' petition, so I googled "save kitchen confidential". Not much happened. A few message boards of people who like the show but that's about it. So next step was to create our own blog to rally the masses into watching this funny show and letting FOX know that it would be a mistake to cancel it.

Actually I just wanted to start another blog. It's a sickness and I can't help myself. But I really am concerned about this show b/c it's great, honest!

Critics Crave Kitchen
*EW says "check out Fox's deliciously dishy new series."
*May says "I can't look away."
*Ntonks_tvtome says "this should be the one sitcom of the fall season that will be raved about by everyone."