Browsing Tag

London

The Stereotypical Western Girl on Twitter

I’ve been thinking about the new Rewd blog at Western and Ryan Dergy’s quest to learn who is behind the @wstrngrl Twitter account. In his article, he proposes that perhaps it is run by Gazette staff because he finds it suspicious “that they got an exclusive interview with @wstrngirl a few months ago.”

Most of the Gazette’s editorial staff identifies themselves as multimedia journalists. Any driven journalist will make optimal use of their resources to get the dirt on an upcoming story when needed and interviewing @wstrngirl is no exception. The creator of the account could easily create an anonymous e-mail to exchange messages with a reporter while maintaining ‘her’ mysterious identity.

Moreover, the Gazette staff operates Canada’s only daily student newspaper and many of its writers are full-time students who write personal blogs. They already have plenty of fun in their office on the third floor of the UCC, while writing editorial pieces and debating each other about hot topics. As for participating in Western’s Twitter community, they share links to new articles, monitor the #uwo hashtag and laugh at what fellow students are sharing.

As a spokesperson for the stereotypical female Western student who wishes Weldon washrooms had full-length mirrors, @wstrngrl has plenty of fame online and offline. Likewise, Gazette writers already have a large readership and do not have the same motivation as the average attention-seeking Western student or business-savvy Ivey folks who want to experiment with social media.

Stereotypical Western Girl

@wstrngirl is a conversation starter and a comedian. The account’s followers don’t need to probe for more info about the person behind the computer screen or BlackBerry. Just read, tweet, and enjoy.

March 25, 2011 by

Come Laugh, It’s For Charity!

Several Western students and their families from Toronto bundled up for a great night of comedy on Sunday to support hungry, underprivileged children. Thanks to the UWO chapter of Canadian Feed the Children, comics Arthur Simeon, Marty Adams, Jeff Leeson, Lars Classington, and host Al Val offered patrons plenty of reasons to laugh and forget about the shivering temperature outside, until Arthur joked about Canadian winters, that is.

Opening acts Jeff Leeson and Lars Classington, from late night comedy talk show London Tonight with Jeff Leeson, both enjoyed poking fun at the elderly. Jeff shared an amusing anecdote about a man who mistook a portable phone for a cell phone and brought it on a road trip, then acted out an old woman counting her change at a grocery store checkout. Lars entertained the crowd by sharing his “million dollar idea” for a new poutine diet, whereby cheese and gravy shall be added to every meal. The Poutine Zero diet is his solution to making weight loss a new year’s resolution.

Second City alum Marty Adams offered the most interactive performance, by asking audience members to write down pet peeves and things that annoy them. Chewing loudly is clearly something that gets on everyone’s nerves, but almost nothing compares to the frustration of watching someone text while you’re in the middle of a conversation. I’ve read books and heard songs about nut allergies, but I have never heard someone put such a hysterical twist on them before Marty. One can only imagine what Letterman would say in a top ten list about people like the girl in the front row who are allergic to fruit.

While Lars concluded his time on stage by conducting a symphony of sex noises, thus distinguishing who was shy in the audience, Arthur sure knew how to end the show. With his candid discussion about racist stereotypes, including a funny story about a late night on the TTC, among other tales about dating, living in Africa, and celebrating Christmas, Arthur ensured that it was a memorable evening for everyone at London Music Hall.

January 24, 2011 by

Music is Life is Music

Just discovered a fun, new interactive website created by The Grammys to promote the upcoming award show that’s only a month away on February 13th.

Music Is Life Is Music invites visitors to tag their location with one of their favourite songs, with the option to add commentary, a few lyrics, and/or a photo of the artist. Only 3 people in London, ON have participated so far! Perhaps more buzz about it will spread closer to the event.

January 12, 2011 by

UWO Stereotypes

Hilarious Satire of UWO Stereotypes – Ke$ha’s ‘We R Who We R’ (Created by Sean Kelly)

November 16, 2010 by

Dear Greyhound, you have some explaining to do.

In this season’s Cougar Town, Laurie suggests Bobby start a blog. He is unemployed, with plenty of time to goof around, so why not? She tells him how a lot of people just use their blog as a forum to complain about bad service at restaurants. Well my experience with Greyhound last night certainly calls for a rant of my own.

I joined the line of Western students ten minutes prior to the scheduled 8 pm departure. It was busy, but it was Thanksgiving Monday, so that was to be expected. Then fifteen, twenty, thirty minutes went by, without a sign of a bus. There was supposed to be another one arriving to pick us up at 9 pm, but that never came either. If you were Brampton-bound, you could take your pick of GO buses, but us Mustangs had to wait.

Yorkdale’s bus terminal became quite the scene, as irate parents grew concerned about how their kids would safely return to campus. One father gave up, asked for a refund, and felt he had no alternative other than to drive his daughter to school himself. Meanwhile, another father retrieved an armful of forms to distribute to the antsy, frustrated students. “There’s no way they can ignore 30 complaints”, he said.

Inside the terminal, a mother demanded that the Greyhound sales reps contact head office, but still no explanation was offered. She even asked them to call the west coast office, hoping that the time difference would make them easier to reach, but no luck.

Instead of taking any chances on the buses leaving early Tuesday morning, I stuck around and took a 3 hour bus with stops in Guelph and Waterloo. We didn’t make it to London until 1 am.

It’s a shame that Greyhound rarely offers guarantees.

October 12, 2010 by