Stars Come Out For Telus

Telus invited me to a party last night to launch the new BlackBerry Storm 9530 smartphone. Stars had just started their first song when I walked in and, although I wasn't totally enamoured with In Our Bedroom After The War, I hadn't seen the band for a few years and enjoyed their 12-song set.

The entertainment was augmented by an open bar and a nice variety of food, including lamb chops, salmon, noodles, shrimp, oysters, vegetables and thinly sliced prosciutto on bread.

E Talk Daily's Tanya Kim hosted the event and Broken Social Scene's Brendan Canning DJed after Stars' set. Gentleman Reg, K-OS, The Trews, Alexisonfire's Wade MacNeil and Suzie MacNeil were the musically inclined guests who mingled with media and record company people, as well as quite a few attractive women and lots of guys in suits.

Free taxi chits were available to take people home, but I declined since I kept my Crown Royal and Coke consumption to three and only live a 10-minute walk away from the venue.

There was a lineup for swag bags at the exit, so I thought I'd wait it out to see what was available. My bag included: a Stars T-shirt; an Arts & Crafts sampler CD; a small, stuffed beaver (or maybe it's an otter); some chocolate; and the new BlackBerry Storm, with a $250 airtime credit and an international roaming card.

There were a few hundred people in attendance, so this party obviously cost Telus a lot of money, but I wouldn't be surprised if this blog post is the most that anyone writes about it. But the company must have thought it was worth it.

Now my dilemma is deciding whether having a cellphone is worth it. A former employer forced one upon me early this decade and, even though I didn't have to pay anything for it, it remained in my bedside drawer doing nothing all the time — except for when I took it with me out of town. I think it was the second time I took it on a road trip — to the 2004 East Coast Music Awards in St. John's, Nfld. — that I must have laid it down somewhere and lost it because I wasn't used to having it. I told the company I didn't want a replacement, and they agreed that it was kind of a waste for me to have one.

I'm one of the very few people I know who don't have a cellphone and I've resisted pressure from friends to get one since I figure I'm not important or popular enough to need one. I'm not a big phone talker and, if people need to reach me, I'm usually not hard to find.

But this smartphone is intriguing because it has all the bells and whistles that most of you tech-savvy probably find commonplace: touch screen; mobile music, television and radio; video; camera; GPS; email; instant messaging; and web-browsing. While this is cool, I know it's unnecessary in my life, and I don't like to throw money at things I'm not going to use — especially now, in a period when my expenses are going up and the value of my investment portfolio is going down. And besides, I'm a Mac user, so perhaps an iPhone would make more sense if I'm going to take this step.

So despite the generous offer, I have to decide if it's worth spending whatever the monthly fees are for this thing. If you can tell me how much you pay each month, or can offer some advice since I'm a neophyte when it comes to these things, please lend a hand.