Hot Canadian: Alison Pill

Alison Pill is quickly emerging as the hottest Canadian on the scene (move over Biebs). After first coming to our attention as L. Lo's ineptly nerdy friend in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (still, I'm sure, her proudest moment), girl has spent the past several years building a smart, awesome career (Milk, Scott Pilgrim, Midnight in Paris - in which she was spectacular) before landing on Newsroom, one of the best things going on cable. 

She's obviously fantastic on Newsroom, though her convincing ineptness is unfortunately making everyone believe she's actually sort of a flake, because we forget that not all television is a reality show (yet). But Maggie is cute and genuine and entirely believable and I wonder what her and Olivia Munn think about each other, and I wonder if they've talked about those sexts that Munn sent because I would have to bring it up. 

Anyway.

Then she's out at Fashion Week, looking all sorts of adorable (you know you all covet those shoes), drinking and gossiping and hanging out with My Girl, and then to top it all off, she drops this brilliant gem to a reporter from the Cut on the red carpet: 

"The best birthday in the world is to have, at most, five people over for a barbeque and to make tofu because it's my birthday and they have to like it... I want a birthday that involves me and the movie Oliver and Company and some Champagne and some marijuana— and I'm speaking into the microphone because it should be legal."

Hilarious! Red carpet interviews are usually boring. So, thanks for that.

Beyond that, she's marrying Jay Baruchel, who is great and hilarious and is part of the original Apatow crowd (and also a Canadian, which, I love that they stick together. Americans are weird, guys, I get it.) He was the star of Undeclared, which could almost not have been better unless Linda Cardelini had been in it somewhere. Also, and I guess above all, she just seems super fun and nice and I want to hang out with her. Maybe on that birthday.

Alison Pill: Hot Canadian bringin' you the news as it should have been. 

PS GET WITH JIM

Happy Canada Day!

I know I am a day late, but their fashions are like 6 years behind, so I don't feel bad.

Ok I do a little. I love Canada.

Hot Canadians: Shenae Grimes

Shenae Grimes is our new reigning hot Canadian, as our last May candidate fell apart mid-article. He should really learn to keep it together.

Shenae Grimes is gorgeous. Here's what I assume is a personal photo and it makes me kind of love her.



She is really very normal-girl gorgeous but still manages to be unique and interesting, and she truly has a star quality, I believe. She is from Toronto and is only 18, young even for the Degrassi cast (before the new characters were added she was the youngest).

Shenae Grimes is Darcy on Degrassi. Darcy... until very recently... was so fucking awful. Not PLAYED awfully by any means, so no flack to Shenae. But Darcy was a very frustratingly self-righteous bible thumping cheerleader and everything she was involved with became incredibly convoluted and hypocritical to the point where you could just dive through the tv and shake her. this is what she looks like in the credits:



Here's a rundown: Darcy's first appearance was as the girl who Toby paid 5 bucks to kiss Rick because Rick felt bad that he was getting slaughtered in their bet that they could get more girls to kiss them in a day (Rick lost because everyone hated him because he put Terry in a coma). I am 99% sure that was her first speaking role, though she may have had a line as a cheerleader previously. Anyways. She slowly worked her way in later after Rick shot Jimmy and subsequently shot himself and then Spinner admitted that he had told Rick that Jimmy had pulled the prank that led to the shooting and then all of Spinner's friends hated him and so he was completely alone and befriended Darcy, the only person in a while to be nice to him. They were clearly flirting and then she invited him to Friendship Club, the Christian club. Spinner found their welcoming attitude and lack of judgement over his previous discretions comforting, and so he became something of a member and he and Darcy started dating. She was a virgin, he wasn't (duh, Paige). There was some drama here and there, mostly Spinner being something of a dick and Darcy overreacting because she took everything as a moral outrage because she had no defined personality. Also she was (during this and sometimes after) incredibly self-righteous and judgmental, (the best example being her refusing to let Mia onto the cheerleading squad, despite her being perfect for it, because she was a teen mother). Then her identity crisis started to take over and she started posting racy pictures of herself on the internet, which progressed to nearly porn-like levels when Peter's "friend" Adams, a reader of her blog, offered money for more pictures and she agreed because cheerleading wanted sluttier shorts, and Peter, who sucks, took the pictures. Then Adams, the online stalker, turned out to not be Peter's friend but just a perv and he showed up at her house and there was this whole to-do. Before that, Peter, who sucks, showed Danny and Derek the pictures,and Spinner found out, and they broke up. Then he slept with Paige, then she took him back, then she found out he slept with Paige, then they broke up, then she went to bible camp for the summer and then... they're friends.

So.

Then, somehow, I sort of forget because it was pretty gradual, her and Peter started dating. Hmmmm I really can't remember the specific tipping point. But she was still really internally conflicted about the whole picture thing and sort of got depressed and then she got drunk while at a party at some resort or something and then she got drugged and raped. WHOA. Peter and her broke up because she didn't remember so he just thought that she got drunk and lost her virginity to someone else, and once she remembered she was too ashamed to talk about it, but she finally did and he was pretty supportive... but in the midst of all this she completely lost it and was totally bitchy to everyone, and worst of all, totally started blatantly flirting with Mr. Simpson, and then when he gave her a low grade she said that he had been flirtatious with her and essentially ruined his life because even though she came clean and got cleared... once that kind of thing is out there there's always the slight question, you know? it's really heartbreaking. Anyways. Then she went on this retreat with the kid who killed JT's friend and Peter and some other bad kids, and she finally realized it's not her fault.

SO.

Now her and Peter are dating and she is sort of becoming friends with Spinner's new girlfriend Jane, who I'm not sure if I care for yet, and she's finally humbled and a genuinely good person.

Got it?
Good.

So, she's also been cast as the lead character in the new 90210 (which I am skeptically excited about). That's kind of huge, both because that show is going to generate a TON of hype despite how good it ends up being and will raise her recognizability significantly, and because as far as a I know no other Degrassi kid has yet had a starring role in another show (or even a major role on a non-N show). Pretty major. Her character has been described as "the Brenda", and is named Annie Mills. This is the character that Hilary Duff was going to play (hypothetically). The show centers around 3 generations of her family. The only well known adult cast on the show is Lori Loughlin which means... she might be playing her mom? Loughlin looks way too young for that to me (although she isn't), but okay.

Here's a picture of her at some CW party...



Shenae Grimes is, clearly, kind of awesome. Shenae sang a part of a Christmas record by some band called Fucked Up, with Nelly Furtado and others. Apparently in the song, Shenae wishes Toronto-ans a "Merry fucking whatever!"... which is lovable.

So there you go. Shenae Grimes: Up-and-coming Canadian, and a friend to you and me. And, hopefully, the gays.

(Not-So) Hot Canadians: Danso Gordon

This is Danso Gordon. Say hello.



He's Canadian! I was watching South of Nowhere, The N's best show besides Degrassi (and maybe as good now that those crazy Canadians have gotten all slicked out and popular), and I thought, are these actors Canadian too? I checked Mandy Musgrave and Christian... Something (the two girls) first, because they're the main characters, I guess, but they're from DC and Florida (reverse respectively). But! Then I checked this feller out, and he's from Toronto!

well, this is where this ends. Doing some research, I found that he left South of Nowhere due to their "pro-homosexual agenda". I guess everyone has a right to their own opinion, but I can no longer include him with the likes of the joyous Christian Lander and Tokyo Police Club (though, admittedly, I do not know their views on homosexuality, I do know that their DISLIKE of homosexuality is not something that has been relevant enough to be included on their wikipedia page (and Christian Lander IS searchable on Wikipedia, I checked, although it does redirect to the "Stuff White People Like" page. Which is acceptable for now)).

I may decide to take this down, but I'm feeling bold right now so here goes.

Hot Canadians: Christian Lander

Stop the presses, this just in! Christian Lander, writer of Stuff White People Like and noted posesser of a book deal, is from Toronto. Based on this fact, along with the fact that his blog is hilarious, he has unmanageable looking hair (which is endearing) and he seems just all around kind of weird and awesome, I've decided to be obsessed with him. Thus far, it's shaping up to be a good choice.

So here's what we know about Christian:
Christian Lander is from Toronto originally. He attended McGill University in Montreal for his undergrad (he studied english, like your major matters at all). I totally am looking into their grad school program (obvs, based on my love of Canada). He attended both Arizona and Indiana for grad school in communications, though it's somewhat unclear if he graduated/where he graduated from. I think maybe he still goes to Indiana? But he lives in LA. SO I GUESS NOT. He rides a bicycle in LA, where he lives with his wife, which is sort of a blow (almost kidding). The fact that he rides a bicycle a) ties him into so many of the things that he discusses on his blog, which is hilarious, I'm sure he wears north face while he drinks bottled water and talks about "going green" by riding his bike (in a not annoying way, of course), and b) means there's a decent chance he lives in my area, as that's where most of the bike crowd in LA seems to be (hippies).

Christian Lander gave this interview to Heeb Magazine (I kind of hope that's not the real name?) which is, first off, charming, and beyond that confirms that this blog has legit been around for all of 3 months. What the F, internet? Christian Lander does NOT have a Wikipedia page. Let's work to change that.

Christian Lander has under 300 friends on Facebook. However, one of these people is Alex Blagg, who used to do Blue States Lose on Gawker, and who I have to believe friended him based on his blog, unless Christian is secretly in with that whole Joel Stein/Mo Rocca/New York intellectual-hipster crowd that seems so interconnected, which I really hope is not the case. His profile is public if you're in LA, and so I totally invaded his privacy and looked at his pictures, and now I have them here for you. Suuuuch a stalker.

Here is Christian Lander looking all adorbs at some meeting or something!


Here is Christian Lander eating ramen noodles!


Here's Christian Lander looking at his iPhone while tailgaiting an Ohio State game!


There are more, and I know these aren't even ACTUALLY good pictures, but I think that makes him seem more intriguing, and this post more hilarious.

Christian Lander was recently hit by a car! And his wrist hurts! Probably because he was biking in Los Angeles. I'm just saying.

So there you have it. That's what we (I) know so far about the hot Canadian that is Christian Lander. I hope he does not hate me for stealing his pictures. Alternately, I may start a feature where I post a weekly picture of Christian Lander, for public enjoyment. Either way, he wins. Hoooraaaayyyy Christian!

Hot Canadians: You Say Party! We Say Die!

HOORAY FOR CANADA! So, You Say Party! We Say Die! is a band from Vancouver. Here's their myspace!!! They've been around for a while, I believe they released their 3rd album last year, called Lose All Time. I really like the Monster and Opportunity, check 'em out.

Here they are!!!

Can't argue with that, huh?

They classify themselves as Dance-Punk, which I like. They're pretty electro/indie/awesome, and I like that, as a quintet, there's a wide range of sounds that they can cover. They're on Paper Bag Records, the same label as Tokyo Police Club... they just got signed in 2007, which is very exciting... they were supposed to do a US tour a couple of years ago but it got cancelled because they couldn't get visas (which, really, United States? Lame.). Anyways, I have a lot less information than I'd like, but they're pretty great and they're getting pretty huge, so hopefully soon they'll be big enough that the US will have to cave and allow us all to "get our dance on"... which I'm pretty sure should be in a law somewhere.

Here's a video. It's weird. And awesome.



pretty much cements the awesome in your mind, eh? You Say Party! We Say Die!: probably the only Canadians our government is afraid of. And I mean that in a very pro-canadian way.

Hot Canadians: Feist

Hooray!

Feist, who is actually Leslie Feist, which is a pretty sick name, is our next hot Canadian. She sings the song that is now on the ipod mini or nano commercial, but which waaaayyy before that was my myspace song, and which is awesome. It is called 1234, like with commas between them, not like one thousand two hundred and thirty four. She is from Nova Scotia. She had another song that was relatively big called My Moon My Man, I think it was also in a commercial for like a phone or Target or something. ETA: Looked it up, it was a phone.

Beyond all that, she's pretty oddly gorgeous.



Models everywhere would kill for that neck.

Feist used to be in Broken Social Scene. Street cred? I think so. She was also in a band called By Divine Right, which I have never heard of. I have a hard time really thinking of her voice, which is super ethereal, in a band setting, but I guess it keeps it interesting.

She's been around for a while... this recent album was her third solo album, but the first one that got tons of attention, and now she's kind of huge. She's obviously weird, for proof see the video for 1234... it takes an odd duck to slap on that blue sequined jumpsuit, but the video's pretty awesome. HERE IT IS!



If you didn't love that song before, watch this a couple times more and I guarantee it will be one of your favorites.



How good is that picture? I wish that was a picture of me.

Feist. The Canadian pop folk singer who will change your life.