I like to pretend I'm a pretty cool girl. I feel like I can remain calm, cool and collected when faced with any type of situation. And then TYGA came to Winnipeg. Lets just say I lost my cool. Since we've come this far we all know that Jay-Z is number one in my heart. But as of last summer I haven’t been able to get enough of Young Money/Cash Money in my ear. I first became addicted to Birdman (creator, father and all that is holy to Young Money Entertainment) when I moved to Toronto in...

I have an obsession with Karl Lagerfeld. To me he's the epitome of greatness and he's gangster as f**k. I treat his book,  The Karl Lagerfeld Diet, as my bible and I try to follow his anecdotes religiously. If you've heard anything about him beyond his fashion god status, it was probably whispers about his diet. The only thing Karl allows his precious body to consume is Diet Coca-Cola and crackers. Like the man says, “I drink diet coke and nothing else, night and day." How inspirational is he? He makes me want to hook up a Diet Coke IV so I...

Happy JUNO week ya'll! For those who appreciate the stellar music our many talented artists have put forth this past year, the time for their recognition is upon us! The 2011 JUNO Awards will air this Sunday, March 27 at 8pm on CTV. To be perfectly honest, I use to watch award shows only for the performances, and even that was painful. In recent years I've pathetically committed to watching the full broadcasts and while most of them give you bedsores, the Junos will run only two-and-a-half hours including the “special extended broadcast”. It actually looks like it could...

Is there honestly anything I like more than Jay-Z and models? FOR-SURE A RHETORICAL QUESTION. If you open up The Blonde Poncho’s bible you’ll find blonde hair clippings and pictures of Jigga. My love for Jay-Z is so unconditional that he can do no wrong. He marries Beyonce, even though I want to be his wife. That’s fine. He becomes best friends with token white guy, Chris Martin, even though I’m dying to be his friend. I let it slide. (PS WORLD THERE ARE SO MANY COOLER WHITE PEOPLE THAN CHRIS MARTIN) He’s in the...

What. the. hell. was. that. Now that we all begin to thaw and our lips stop chattering at the very thought of going outside, let's stop for a moment and reflect on the myriad ways we tried to not freeze so far this winter. Womp womp. It's interesting, actually. After theorizing Canadian Girl Syndrome for years I happened across an important discovery: it works in reverse, too. (Canadian Girl Syndrome, if you're wondering, is the premature reappropriation of summer attire. You know, the girls wearing sweat skirts (barf), bare legs and Uggs the first time it stops being freezing in, like, March.) I musn't've...

After weeks of unlimited indulgence, my own turkey neck is wobbling a bit more than I'd like to admit. Numerous times we hear someone sharing that they can have whiskey in their morning coffee or 4 pieces of pie followed by the explanation "it's the holidays" - which really isn't much of an excuse. Whether your doing it because you actually make New Year's Resolutions or because the muffin top on your jeans belongs in Texas, lightening up your diet come January is usually a good decision. As any form of strict regimen gives me flashbacks of teen angst and...

The Tales of a Canadian Girl Living in Southern Virginia By: Kimberley Cuachon-Haugh I love this column for the reason that I am able to share with all of you the ridiculous bullshit that I encounter on a daily basis here in Hampton Roads, Virginia.  As disconnected as the region is where all the cities strive for nothing more than being individual from the other, it clearly mirrors the majority of the people in the area that lack the synapse to prevent them from acting like such dumb asses. Lend your ear if you will to this crap.  My husband and I headed...

Tales of a Canadian Girl Living in Southern Virginia.... By: Kim Cuachon-Haugh Last week I went in for my six-month dental cleaning.  Now, I have been to this dentist before but yet again they had me fill out the new patient forms just as I did six months ago.  And so I succumbed to the tedious forms, “No I have not been diagnosed with HIV; No I do not suffer from any respiratory difficulties….” After all that nonsense I was sat in the dental chair, enter the dentist and he said, “Oh, I remember you, you’re that Canadian.”  That Canadian?  Really? ...

Tales of a Canadian living in Southern Virginia... By Kimberley Cuachon-Haugh Excessive wait times in ERs made front page news last weekend in The Virginian-Pilot outlining a new SOP Medicare is rolling out.  Living in the US now for a year, I am still baffled as to how healthcare works in this country—insurance (or lack thereof), co-pays, claims, reimbursements etc.  In fact, after my first physical that I had here I walked right out the door and the receptionist came running after me for my credit card. With every American that...

It's been weeks of waiting, and  finally, we have a winner. Since June, the Polaris Prize has once again been baiting Canadian music lovers with the ever-present question of--who will it be? And more importantly, why will they win? The prize consists of a $20,000 cash prize, as well as the fame and recognition that comes with being crowned as Canada's creator of that year's album with the most artistic merit. This is something that seems to be lost on a lot of people. There's always a rift when the long, then short lists are announced. Why the hell...

The tales of a Canadian Girl living in Southern Virginia... With today being September  11^th  I have been looking forward to  the American versus Muslim type  stories to rear.  And they have been—especially with the Mosque sorry, Muslim community center , in the midst at Ground Zero.  One article in particular that caught my eye was a story that broke from the Associated Press about the staging of “International Burn a Quaran Day”.  Rev. Terry Jones who spearheads an evangelical Christian church out of Gainesville, Florida plans to torch copies of the Islamic holy text today.  OK,...

This is what can happen when an uber-adventurous artsy space-case tries to conquer the world. 1. A few spring's ago after a 2 week coastal road trip to Georgia, I did the unthinkable. The night before flying back to Toronto, after an attempted cleanse during the trip, I mega over-indulged in low grade vodka at a local watering-hole in rural PA. It didn't help that my American friend was buds with the bartender, so things were doubles and triples. No time to sleep it off, and up and at 'em at the crack of dawn to pack, I left my guest...