Doug’s ‘Impressions’ posts gave me an idea — now that my NXNE hangover has passed (caught up on sleep, did endless loads of laundry, sewed my poor, abused travel bag…), I’d like to talk about a few of my experiences and sum up my time at NXNE in Toronto. Alright, here goes. Doug style.

**Wifi is damn hard to find in downtown Toronto** Seriously. I could not believe how difficult it was to find wifi free or otherwise! As a blogger, it’s likely I should have secured several places from which to blog. It was just ridiculous. More than once I found myself sitting on the sidewalk outside of a random apartment building err… tapping into someone else’s unsecured network or sitting on the floor of the Holiday Inn facing a very specific direction in order to keep the weak signal connected. Bah, I say. Bah!

**I really like 70’s-esque funk/pop/psychedelic** Yep. Turns out I like psychedelic music a whole lot. It seems that some of the acts I enjoyed the most at NXNE all had elements of psychedelic pop or funk: The Hoa Hoa’s, The Wet Secrets, Spiral Beach… all totally awesome bands. This was a learning experience for me. I never knew this about myself. I feel like I’ve grown as a person. Now I can listen to the B52’s and grow out my beehive unashamed and rooooooooam if I want to! *totally grooves*

**I’m David Martel’s biggest fan** I know! Sounds so stalkerish. But seriously? I can’t stop listening to his album I Hardly Knew Me. I can’t recommend this guy enough. I found myself this morning wishing I had the lyrics and chords so I could sit down and jam along with the cd. Great stuff. Here, go buy I Hardly Knew Me for yourself. I’ll judge you if you don’t. I’ll question your commitment to good music.

**Moshing is still as fun as it was 10 years ago.** That’s pretty self explanatory, isn’t it? Man, jumping wildly to awesome music never loses its cool.

**Packed clubs are HOT.** This is not Paris Hilton’s ‘hot’, this is, like, face-melting hot. At one point Doug and I actually completely drenched ourselves and each other with ice water to try and not die while dancing in with the swarms of hot, sweaty people. It was pure insanity, I tell you.

**BlackBerry’s are terrifying. And quite vulgar.** So I’m sitting in my favourite restaurant enjoying some delicious shrimp and chicken pad thai and a nice glass of white wine and enjoying my sunshine-y seat by the window when all of a sudden a giant walking BlackBerry comes along and throws himself at the window directly beside me and starts grinding the window and rubbing his scroll ball. I laughed and choked and checked to see if my heart had exploded. Thankfully, I survived the attack to witness, only five minutes later, at least 7 more giant BlackBerrys parading by the window waving and shaking their qwerty keyboards crudely at passers-by. I nearly ran out on my bill to chase them with my camera to nab some photos for our sister site BlackBerryCool.com. The BBCool guys would have loved it!

**Yes, bring more than one pair of shoes to NXNE** When I bought these shoes, I though “Wow, it’s like I’m walking in bare feet! These shoes are so comfortable!” And after 4 days of walking and rain and clubs and beer covered floors and moshing, I was like “Wow. It’s like I’m walking in bare feet. These. Shoes. Are. Awful.”

**My ears are still ringing, also.** You can say that again! Wait, no, please… say that again?

Bambi – Tired, traveled, and mid-hydration

Bambi here — your fearless blogger — braving the wilds of a downtown hotel’s tv lounge to bring you this post.

I have arrived! Left on the train to Toronto at 8:30am, settled in to the nearly bare train with my laptop and headphones and schemed and scheduled all the great interviews, live show reviews, and networking I’m going to be doing for the next four days. The week’s going to be packed full of things to do and see and hear!

When I arrive, I hailed a cab and drove twenty minutes to my lodgings — a $10 cab ride! I’m amazed by that… in Ottawa that would have been at least $30. Dropped my stuff off in my room and ventured back out on the town to check out the venues and to time how long it took me to get from one to the next. It was a lot of walking but was totally doable. Not many other cities can boast scenes like Toronto can!

I ended Day One with a cold beer with friends and a tour via car of the venues I hadn’t yet located in my treasure hunt.

Day Two begins at… 2am! Yep, that’s right! I’ll be back out again at 2am to see White Cowbell Oklahoma at The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern! Though not Canadian (though many members are), they’re rocking the kickoff NXNE show and I absolutely love these guys, so I’ll be there front row centre – will you?

Stay tuned for more blog updates, live reviews, video interviews, podcasts, and tonnes more. And be sure to keep up to date with our Flickr feed, too!