| From a paradise of triple exclamation marks and inaccurate observations |
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[06 May 2008|12:15pm] |
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Vulgaires Machins - Compter les corps |
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I am going to post about a really boring week I had! Mostly because I look pictures. I had to go back to Ottawa for a week. I was bored. I mostly made sushi and volunteered at my dad's church (???—that happened a bit by accident). I bought some awesome stuff at the garage sale they had, though; ( let's take a look. )
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| There is so much fruit punch in my life right now |
[11 Mar 2008|11:56am] |
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Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division |
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I'm having second thoughts about going back to Ottawa this weekend.
Also this song is amazing: "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division. Sorry it's a bit staticky, but I ripped it from vinyl. I saw Anton Corbijn (amaaazing music photographer)'s film about Ian Curtis of Joy Division, Control, recently and I highly recommend seeing it! It's beautifully shot.
And I love this. I miss doing that sort of thing, but it's too cold outside.
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| I like English culture a lot |
[05 Feb 2008|09:39pm] |
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Douglas Adams - The Hithhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radio show) |
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Today for breakfast, I had two pieces of very unhealthy-tasting cake, a bag of chips, and a bottle of Sprite. For lunch, fries dipped in mayonnaise, some Earl Grey tea, and that can of Red Bull the textbook shop gave me for free back in September. In a desperate attempt to counteract the atrocious diet I've been following today, my dinner was comprised mostly of lettuce.* Needless to say, I feel pretty gross right now, and the three papers I have to write don't help. One's due tomorrow (at 8:00am, WHY), another Thursday, and one was, er, due today (due date missed due to a] lack of communication, b] lack of organization, and c] five aged pop stars). I hate it, though! As easy as Descartes' nonsense is to refute, I don't think his philosophy should be dignified by being written about. Psh.
My mood as been temporarily lifted by mint tea and Never Mind the Buzzcocks (how much do I love this show? So much!), but I should really get started. Aaahaha, ilu LJ.
( Here are pictures of the Weakerthans. )
Alsooo, I saw the Spice Girls last night! It was all FANTASTIC: the costumes, the displays, the dancing, and obviously the singing and fabulousness of our dear Sporty, Baby, Posh, Ginger, and Scary. I was going to post pictures, but they're embarrassingly bad (like, worse that usual), so no.
*Meal plan = death. The cafeteria food here is completely inedible, and I say that having licked yoghurt off someone's boot. On Saturday I spent 8 hours at my grandma's just so I could eat lunch and dinner instead of just lunch, to avoid yet another meal at that horrible, horrible place. It was fun, though: she just got a new iMac! Also I like playing Scrabble!
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| Dan Deacon! |
[30 Jan 2008|01:21pm] |
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Dan Deacon - Spiderman of the Rings |
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Last night was the best night of LIFE. EVER.
DAN DEACONNN! Okay okay. I had this fantastic spot which is kind of hard/boring to describe because of how the stage was set up, but at any given time I was right in front of/right behind Dan Deacon, dancing madly! He is such a great performer, and the audience was so into it, and it was so loud and upbeat that...I don't know how to finish that sentence. I'm still trying to think of adjectives to justify that show. It was like, you know when something smells so strongly that you can kind of taste it too? It was like that, but with sound and it consumed all your senses, and then beat them with sticks (in this metaphor that's a good thing!). It was like all thought stopped to make room for the experience of being there, and when the show ended, it was really difficult to resume thinking about the inane things that usually fill my head. I was left in a uninterruptible state of wide-eyed awe until I got home an hour and a half later.
Also never have I been so glad I don't have epilepsy; the A/V thing they did at the beginning of the set, called Ultimate Reality, is intensely seizure-inducing. And did I buy that bitch on DVD or WHAT! It's like electro meets Arnold Schwarzenegger + Keanu Reeves films meets more bright colours than you can even imagine.
The opening band was shit, though. They're one of those bands that a more inexperienced showgoer version of myself would have thought was good until the proper good band would come on and remind me what proper good is; however, I've stopped tricking myself into thinking shit bands are not shit. They're called DD/MM/YYYY and I would best describe them as sounding like Neils Children only bad, or Lovely Feathers meets lots of circuit boards meets Ever So Clever (but lacking the latter's frankly very necessary sense of humour). Anyway.
( Photos )
More pictures here.
I finally got his CD—I've been trying for months, but it's impossible to find and I didn't want to order it. BUT here it is. One of the songs is from iTunes and I forgot to switch it for a non-DRM track, so if anyone wants it, say so!
Other than that, my life has been pretty usual the past couple weeks. Class, watch sitcoms (British comedy [Black Books! Never Mind the Buzzcocks! Spaced! Saxondale! Hot Fuzz! Shaun of the Dead!] is the best thing that has ever happened to me), etc. Lots of shows, too: last week I saw Peter Bjorn and John (Young Galaxy opened! Best ever!) with Steph, and then Tokyo Police Club played for free (outdooors, wtf Canadians and their/our winter festivals) on Saturday, and those were good. This Saturday, The Weakerthans are playing for free, also outdoors, then on Monday it's The Spice Girls, and the following Saturday I will finally get to see that bitch Cat Power. Whoa!
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[16 Nov 2007|10:18pm] |
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Razorlight - Razorlight (I hate self-titled albums) |
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DAMN I had a good week. Let's get started!
1. I got hired at HMV! I have wanted to work at a record store, any record store, for so long and it's FINALLY HAPPENING. AND I don't have to work full-time at FUCKING WENDY'S over the holidays. Or ever again, for that matter. This is only a seasonal thing, but we'll see what happens after the holidays.
2. Sunday night Steph and I met Razorlight. And not the wordless exchange, sign my CD kind of met. The beer and conversation kind of met.
We got there, and the show didn't get off to a good start. We had ended up behind this incredibly immature and ugly man who was clearly overcompensating ("I've been to 87 shows this year") and chatted up fucking everybody around him, and that often meant he'd lean pretty much right through me and Steph to get to the people farther away. I know that by going to shows you give up the right to personal space, but I kind of like not having a sweaty fat man a millimetre away from my face when I am trying to breathe, especially between sets. We exchanged some harsh words, but fortunately we got away from him thanks to moshing drunken frat boys. I should point out, however, that I admire his ability to make out with a girl in the middle of that mosh pit. And, come to think of it, his ability to attract a girl, period. The opening bands, Gran Ronde and the Von Bondies, were okay, but barely so and that's taking into account lowered standards for opening bands. Anyway.
Razorlight. Was fucking awesome. Tight pants and jumping up and down and 'America' and oh god, it was amazing.
Then, before the encore, Andy Burrows threw his drum sticks into the audience. I saw one coming at me and thought "Cool! I think I will finally get a drum stick!" And I did, directly above my eye! After a bit of a panic ("STEPH I DON'T WANT TO GO BLIND!"), we were chillin' outside with some ice and struck up a conversation with the sound engineer. Who brought us backstage. At a Razorlight show.
I had always heard Razorlight is a twattish band, but they were nice! Andy was very apologetic, we chatted with Carl about British joints vs. North American ones, and we didn't talk to Johnny Borrell but he kind of sneaked up behind Steph and started laughing at Andy. Then we left.
Things we got from this:
1 Tambourine that has been all around the world! It's been to Russia and Japan!
2 drum sticks
4 guitar picks
A beer each
Taxi/hush money (?!!!)
An appearance in the tour's end photo
A blackish-gone pink-gone yellow eye and the coolest story ever
Sooo random.
I'd show photos as I usually do, but this stupid freeware I downloaded corrupted my Photoshop and the new one I have is missing stuff it needs to install, sooo that will all have to wait.
3. I am now concluding this hectic week (job interviews! doctor's appointments! class! ahh!) watching Six Feet Under (finally) and listening to "Golden Touch" every time I go pee. I am also drinking loads of tea so I can pee a lot, and therefore listen to that fantastic song a lot. Seriously, find it somewhere. I'd upload it, but I can't get it off my iPod and for some reason I don't own this album!
4. Oh and I cut about 2/3 of my hair off and flushed it down the toilet.
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| I was the only white person in African Studies. They thought I was a spy. |
[22 Sep 2007|09:24pm] |
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Miracle Fortress - Five Roses |
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A lot of things have happened in the past couple of weeks, namely me moving to Toronto. First time on my own, college, blah blah blah. Unimportant, this is better:
PRETTY MUCH, YEAH. Let's count the ways this is awesome!
1. Kanye West!
2. Daft Punk!
3. Picture disc!
4. Takashi Murakami, who made Louis Vuitton tolerable for a while and now this! Pretty cool.
5. I briefly considered spending a fortune buying this on eBay a while back. Fortunately I decided against it and instead found it at HMV for, like, a tenth of the price.
I also saw Devendra Banhart last night! He was pretty awesome. He also undid all my forced efforts to not be shallow. He is fit! ( Let's take a look, shall we? )
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| Thrift whores |
[22 Aug 2007|11:40pm] |
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Islands! All of it! |
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These are all just some pictures Catherine (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) bangbang_powpow), Marisha (sowhatsthestory), and I took in the parking lot of a Dairy Queen after a successful trip to Value Village (where I spent more than I care to mention...oops). I am used to building up all the exciting things that happen in my life and posting about them every few months, but hey, now you can look at the fun we had in a parking lot today. ( Bring the tacky )
We have matured so much.
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| Yipee-ki-yay! |
[21 Aug 2007|11:35am] |
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The Shins - Oh, Inverted World; Stars - Heart, The Comeback EP |
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It's about time I debuted some photos from my new camera! His name is Bruce Willis because he's big and can do anything without dying. Don't even ask me why I have another camera named Han Solo.
( Pixelated rectangles! )
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| Now it's overheard |
[18 Aug 2007|04:31pm] |
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Beirut, Mika, Miracle Fortress, Shout Out Out Out Out |
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Bonjour tout le monde! This post is long overdue as usual, but it's worth mentioning that a month or two ago I went to New York with Steph, Joe, and a boy named Matt whom I've never mentioned before. Mostly because I'd never met him. The idea of the trip was to see Maxïmo Park whom I'm sure you all know I love--they did have some dates in Canada, but the Toronto show was originally 19+ and Steph was still 18, so that was out, and the Montreal show shared the day with the release of the Harry Potter film (before it was moved, just our luck), the midnight premiere of which Steph wanted to attend. So we went to New York instead, joined by the two aforementioned boys who actually don't like Maxïmo Park, but we managed find a couple things to do in NEW YORK CITY. ( LES PHOTOS! )
So...I think that's it! In America no one can drive and everything's covered in cheese. I am mostly pretty okay with the excessive cheese and grease inherent in all American food ever, but I'm an abnormally unhealthy eater for a Canadian. Next trip I'm going to have to see way more musicals, the museum of sex, and go to Lucky Cheng's (a drag bar that serves Chinese food)! OH--musicals! I didn't talk about the one we saw, Spring Awakening! It was amazing, it was intelligent but funny teenage angst, a combination of which one rarely finds all in one place. I loved loved loved it and I want to see it again so badly!
OH. And. While we were at Teany, we spotted a magazine called Mean, and on the cover was none other than John Krasinski. Inside were some delightful photos, and we thoroughly enjoyed lusting over them. So you can imagine our joy when we asked our waitress, Kelly Tisdale herself, if the magazines were for sale and she told us they had been given to her for free, and that she didn't care to take our money for them. So we got a fabulous magazine all full of Mr. Krasinski for free! I have scanned the relevant pages for your pleasure. Here! I'd like you to comment if you download the zip, but you don't have to.
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| Pride! |
[26 Jun 2007|11:36am] |
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The Polyphonic Spree - The Fragile Army |
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This weekend I went to Toronto for PRIDE! Parades and unabashedly being hit upon ensued. True to form, I will recreate this fun I've had for you all with brightly-coloured, bad-quality photos and uninteresting captions. Strictly speaking, these photos are worksafe, but...it was an event to celebrate sexuality, so.
( Let's go! )
And that was my weekend. In other news, I'm really getting into Battlestar Galactica and it's pretty damn amazing. AND I'm excited about this new show called Flight of the Conchords, though it's on a station that I don't get. It's about these two New Zealander kids who move to New York to form an indie-folk band. Could the premise of this show be any more perfect? Oh my god, where do I download it.
Since I haven't uploaded anything in a while, have The Fragile Army by The Polyphonic Spree. It's SO upbeat and joyful, you won't regret it. You may know them from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind--they contributed a few songs to that soundtrack. They also did the score for Thumbsucker, I believe.
...Oh my, the last time I updated was in early April. The last time I went to Toronto. I have got to start posting more! Or get over my belief that my entries are dumb and un-private the last two! Haha, they were pretty useless, though. One was full of things I like to pretend are essays and the other was about how happy I was to have won a CD.
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| "...though I haven't ruled it out." |
[05 Apr 2007|10:05pm] |
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Mika - Life in Cartoon Motion, Kaiser Chiefs - Yours Truly, Angry Mob |
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I had the most fabulous weekend in Toronto! I saw Glop and met her other half, Joe, and sort of met Isabel because the last time I saw her I spent most of the time sleeping. Oh, and I saw OK Go and Snow Patrol too.
Glop and I had to wake up super early to catch the train to Toronto, but had a grand old time in transit listening to music, eating cream cheese bagels, and talking (apparently our conversation about how all the Star Wars villains have English accents was so loud we were overheard by most of the car). You know, stuff you do on trains. We also did some slightly less conventional activities like laugh at eggs and do math puzzles. I successfully got Glop to admit she likes Harlem Shakes, thereby completing one of my two goals for the weekend. The afternoon was spent faffing about in Indigo, HMV, H&M, and this fabulous store that sells used vinyl and old school Star Wars action figures. I got a book called The Pornographer's Poem by Michael Turner, and it's good and you should all read it. I also got a fanny pack (???) at H&M and you should all know by now I can't go into an HMV without buying something. We had the most amazing lunch at a vegan restaurant called Fresh, and witnessed the most hilarious orderer ever--it was a girl originally from LA who was on a ridiculous diet and ordered like Sally in When Harry Met Sally. We had curry and dosas and sweet potato fries and wraps with pesto and the most delicious smoothies ever, and were still too full hours later to even think about food.
The show? The show was fantastic. We were delayed by the streetcar people being stupid and making us wait half an hour before telling us we wouldn't be going anywhere, but apparently we only missed the bad half of Silversun Pickups' set. Standing at the back was unacceptable, so we had to charge through the crowd and got pretty close to the front, but unfortunately we ended up next to a huge group of horny guys with girls with low self-esteem hanging off their arms/lips who were incredibly rude and gross, but we won't get into that because OK Go and Snow Patrol were there and that's a million times better. This is my least favourite OK Go show to date, but that's only because a show in a tiny living room is tough to beat. It was still an amazing set, they had some cool (read: tasteful--I'm looking at you, U2) ideas for effects and props. Highlight #1: Damian Kulash singing a bit of 'Chasing Cars'. His ramble about Kidz Bop covering 'Here It Goes Again' and 'Chasing Cars' and how eight-year-olds probably have no idea what those songs mean was great too. Snow Patrol was fantastic, they were better this time than when I saw them in September. I attribute this mostly to having had the chance to listen to them and get to know the music a little better, but Gary Lightbody flirting with boys in the audience (highlight #2) definitely had something to do with it.
The next morning I accomplished goal number two: make Glop watch the American Office. And then I left.
Also, I wrote all that on Sunday. It's now Thursday. A few hours ago, The Office hiatus ended. This was my first time watching it live on TV. If you need me, I'll just be chillin' in my little cloud of euphoria. Yup. Everyone please watch that show, it's so amazing! I will upload anything you'd like!
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| SPEW |
[10 Mar 2007|02:20pm] |
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Harry and the Potters, Peter Bjorn and John |
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Last night, Marisha, Mandy, Mike, Eamon, and I took geek to a whole new level by going to see HARRY AND THE POTTERS last night. We had originally planned to see a Polish film about the Ten Commandments, but when this second event came up we decided to vote on which we'd all prefer to go to. Then, however, Marisha and Eamon got held up and we decided it would be better to be late for Harry and the Potters than an already short film that was farther away. And now the requisite, "It was amazing!" because I don't know how else to segue to the part where I talk about why that is.
I hate naming genres of music for many reasons, but using the word "punk" especially bothers me because we aren't in the '70s/early '80s anymore. That said, that's how I can best describe them. Their music is definitely not pop* (they even have a grindcore and a spoken word song, hahaha), and it's all about damning the man (namely Voldemort). They were constantly talking/singing about fighting evil with rock and love and all that, it was terrific. They had collared shirts and broken glasses falling off their heads and Seth-Cohenesque Jew 'fros and one of them had a dirt lip, but they were by far the coolest ones in the room and knew it. It was a great show, they were really good at including the audience, plus it was in a really small venue to begin with. And they actually pretended to be Harry Potter, both of them! They would talk about events (most of which I didn't know of) in the books as if they'd actually happened. It was all very marvelous. Unfortunately, they aren't nearly as good on record as they are live.
Pictures? ( Pictures. )
While my dislike of Harry Potter and its following has waned since betting a few years ago that I could completely avoid reading the books or watching the movies, I still don't like it. That said, I find the whole Wizard Rock genre that has come from this fandom most intriguing. I'm eagerly awaiting the appearance of a documentary two girls made about the genre. Read about it all here.
*Not that pop is, in any way, a bad thing.
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| O hay, LJ!1 |
[08 Mar 2007|09:28pm] |
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Peter Bjorn and John - Writer's Block |
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Let the chaotic post begin!
1. I got this WICKED new camera. Here's what happened: I went to Chapters to get a magazine, one that didn't end up being there. Instead, I browsed the magazine rack and picked up i-D to flip through. I found a review of a camera, made by I company I had never heard of, Leica (turns out there aren't any dealers in Canada). I read it, and thought it sounded amazing--probably because it costs something around 5000 USD. I found it interesting because the author said it was designed around a concept entirely different from that of the SLR, and that users of the latter might have trouble getting used to this one. Intrigued, I went home and Googled. And then I eBayed. Before I continue, two things: I don't have money for a professional-grade digital camera, and I had made a vow never to buy a point-and-shoot ever again because they are bad and ultimately just set me back further financially. Being the self-disciplined individual I am, I bid on a point-and-shoot made by Leica, carried by a seller located in Thailand (slightly sketchy!). I justified this by wanting to see how Leicas worked without spending too much money--then I can properly assess what kind of expensive camera I want when I can afford one.
I am not disappointed. UGH, it's BRILLIANT. Despite being VERY, VERY cheap. Let me explain to you my opinion about cameras. Cheap film cameras are GREAT, as long as they are at a certain level of functionality. Cheap digital cameras are not. Film cameras do not suffer for being cheap--they lack focus, or aren't very fast, or don't capture colour properly--but while you may not use them for professional work for those reasons, you can end up with some lovely, fun, charactered photos. Most of their parts are easy to fix by oneself, too. Digital cameras, on the other hand, have PIXELS. PIXELS ARE BAD. BIG PIXELS ARE WORSE. Also, if a digital camera doesn't properly capture some colours, then pixels, no matter how small, stand out. I HATE PIXELS. Back to the point! With this camera, however, it's pretty good digitally! Its cheap manner is caused by characteristics usually found in film cameras, so I can have the joys of a bad film camera without the cost of developing! Yay! This is probably because it is a poser film camera. Seriously. It has a film-winder, and a film speed selector wheel thingie (I...don't know the terminology, sorry)! I nearly broke them off trying to figure out what they do, and they're just decoration! Hilarious! The thing doesn't even have an LCD screen! And another thing. It is tiny. Length-of-my-thumb tiny. I frequently poke my eye with it when trying to use the viewfinder. It fits in my pocket. OH OH AND IT HAS MANUAL FOCUS. DROOL. ( Gasp, all this talk of cameras and no pictures yet! )
2. 50% I took some pictures and want to post them + 40% I still want to talk about it + 10% gorthead kept nagging me = this section of the entry.
Back in, when was it, September? Glop and I skeedaddled off to the Toronto Film Festival. She was seeing a bunch more films, but I just accompanied her to the Last Kiss and Shortbus screenings, for which she graciously provided me tickets. The details are fuzzy, but we did things (readers: "Fascinating, Meghan!"). We met the girl who played Lindsay on Queer as Folk while eating somewhere. We met Zach Braff, who turned out to be kind of rude, but that's not important. We saw Morgan Freeman. We met JOHN CAMERON MITCHELL! When it happened, I wasn't all that interested. I had seen Hedwig and respected his film making talents, but I never liked that film as much as, cough, some people I know. Glop, the hopelessly devoted fan she is, went up to talk to him while I politely stood at a distance. I looked over, and he was hugging her. Next thing I knew, he was hugging me! I like people who hug me after little more than an introduction. We took photos, then saw the film. And. It's. I love it. So, so much. I wish I could have met him afterwards, to congratulate him on the awesomeness of it all. Seriously, everyone go watch it--I think it comes out on DVD next Tuesday. Also, it was the weirdest coincidence: Osheaga had taken place the week before, and I there I had seen the Hidden Cameras. And then there they were again, at the screening! And in the film! And on the soundtrack! Small world. As for The Last Kiss, I'm sure my opinion of it doesn't differ much from anyone else's. The morals it seemed to be trying to teach didn't quite add up or make sense, and the story didn't really work as a story, either as a beginning-middle-end one or as the slice-of-life type. Plus, my expectations were too high. ( My day as a paparazzo )
We also saw Snow Patrol a few days later, and that was cool but not exceptional.
3. Apparently I think 39 comes after 28, and so I missed uploading ten pictures from my Dubai trip that I had edited and were all set to go! They're all from our drive around the Emirates. ( Here they are! )
4. Another trip to Toronto was had, this time to see ART BRUT and THE SPINTO BAND and WE ARE SCIENTISTS (omg, hype45! Finally!) The destructibility of my cell phone was tested when I dropped it early in the show and was found only a while into it (after much moshing about). Wait, why am I telling you this? I saw Art Brut! And We Are Scientists! And The Spinto Band again (I forgot the Spinto kazoo they gave me last time and couldn't play along to 'Brown Boxes'! It was tragic)! Much fun was had: there was Keith Murray piggybacking Eddie Argos, The Spintos dancing with pitas, and pillow fights. And seeing her naked twice (I assure you, this is not porn. It is a song.) I took pictures, but they aren't very good and I don't feel like editing them. I selected the best/funniest/most significant ones and put them here (start at the end and work your way to the start, the order is backwards).
5. I while ago, I saw a band called The Dymaxions open for Islands. They were magnificent. Unfortunately, they broke up a little while ago. The good news is, the songwriter/lead vocalist has gone solo under the stage name Gregory Pepper and his songs are only marginally less fun than those he made with his former band! He said on his MySpace that you can email him for his new CD, and he will mail it for free! And email him I did! He had sharpied onto the disk, "Please make copies". I feel it can reach a larger audience and not waste so many blank CDs to just use the Interweb, so here you go: Gregory Pepper and His Problems. Life has been very good lately, in a musical sense.
6. I started at a new school. Only now do I see that public schools are so much better than private ones. I won't get into explaining my reasons for thinking this, though. I'm doing a lot better academically, and I am not too worried about not finishing the year with good (if not great) marks. Usually when I start at a new school, I love it too much and eventually start to hate it passionately. As a result, I do really really well and then just give up and fail anyway. However, I don't like this school, nor do I dislike it. I am doing most of my assignments, and any loss of marks is from me ACTUALLY being challenged. (Hey, Tancook! What a concept!) So, putting all of my effort into the first couple months and then burning out (read: getting lazy) isn't much of a concern. Anyway, I'm still unsure of how the university thing is going to turn out this year, but at least I can get my diploma and move on.
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| Osheaga! |
[04 Oct 2006|06:46pm] |
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This all happened a month ago, fyi. This is how good I am at updating!
For those of you who have not heard me talk about how excited I was, Osheaga is a two-day music festival in Montréal that I, needless to say, attended. Where to start? WHERE TO START? I think I will skip the whole weekend and go right to the very last set I attended, Lady Sovereign's, during which The SOV herself threw cans of beer into the audience and the guy standing next to me got one and shared it with me. Oh yeah, the guy standing next to me was ALEX CHOW FROM ISLANDS. GUYS! If you've been ignoring everything I talk/write about until now, Islands floats around in my top three favourite bands EVER. MY LIFE IS FANTASTIC.
This being a festival, I saw a lot of bands that were amazing and I can't do much other than gush about them, and I saw a lot of bands about which I have nothing to say. Also, I will be fangirling a lot because you would too if you shared a beer with a member of a band you love as much as I love Islands. Well, maybe not, but if you're as dorky as me you would. So, yeah, that's what this entry consists of! Onwards!
( Day 1! )
( Day 2! )
PS: Osheaga's got this contest going on, where you send in three pictures taken there and if you win, you get a pass to the 2007 festival AND a photo pass. That not only means srsly amazing angles that you can't get in the regular audience area, but without a photo pass you can't bring any professional camera in the park, so I wouldn't be stuck with my lame-ass point-and-shoot. I don't actually have a nice camera yet, but I'm working on it. O rite, my point! I want to enter. I've decided on that one of Nick Diamonds, and then one of Bell Orchestre, one of Think About Life or one of Lady Sovereign because I had really good spots and lighting for those last three and therefore got several good* shots of those people. I've also got some potential Wintersleep and Clap Your Hands ones. SO, if any of you want me to zip all the photos I took of those and send them to you, I'd love it if you'd help me decide which ones to use. I'll even buy you candy if you help.
*"Good," taking into consideration my camera, among other interference.
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| Spaceships, they won't understand |
[14 Sep 2006|09:58pm] |
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The Strokes - Is This It |
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A lot of things have happened in the past few weeks that I deem necessary for the entire Internet to know about because my life is being really awesome (although my bank account disagrees), but that all involves long posts and editing lots of pictures and and and. The status is this: my Osheaga post is mostly done, most of it is written but I still have to edit a lot of pictures for it; and I have yet to even upload my pictures from the Toronto Film Festival, let alone write about it, so you will have to wait for the photos of Zach Braff and John Cameron Mitchell taken by yours truly. That said, the tremendously fantastic part of my life that I am about to show you requires little explanation and is in no way related to all the other things that have been going on that need long bodies of text describing them, so I can brag and be lazy at the same time. It all works out!
GUYS. THAT SCRAP OF PAPER. IS SIGNED BY JULIAN CASABLANCAS. AND IT IS FOR ME. AND HE SPELLED MY NAME RIGHT, WHICH IS NOT SOMETHING MOST MUSICIANS ARE CAPABLE OF DOING (and yes, I do spell it out for them). AHH.
When Sasha gave it to me (sadly, I did not meet him in person), she explained that he'd started to write "hi" but forgot to finish. When I showed it to Glop, however, she pointed out that the H looks like a 4, so at this point I don't know what to think. PSH, AS IF I CARE. JULIAN CASABLANCAS WROTE ME A NOTE.
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| How did I go from Memphis to The Horrors in the space of a few hours? |
[18 Aug 2006|07:06am] |
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See entry! |
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Today I discovered that caffeine does, in fact, have an effect on me. This is why I am up at 7:08am on a weekday during the summer holidays. After abandoning the Internet, I played with my cat, then I tried to sleep and that lasted about two minutes, and then I went through a box of old objects I used to love when I was younger, and then I tried to watch the sunrise but I got bored, so inevitably I ended up back on the Internet. So here I am in the ridiculously tacky kimono I purchased at Value Village, with eleven Band MySpaces open which I am slowly sorting through to see which ones are good. So far, nothing's bad! Do you want to see what bands they are? Of course you do.
1. Yeah Yeah Candy
"YEAH YEAH CANDY!"
(This is not actually a band page, it belongs to some DJ's who have good taste in music. You can play one song here, though.)
2. The Horrors
"EXCELLENT CHOICE"
(I've actually known of and loved the Horrors since early July, but I have to listen to them on MySpace until the single I ordered comes in the post.)
3. Poppy and the Jezebels
"Poppy and the Jezebels"
4. Boys of Brazil
"INVENTIVE PROD"
5. Fear of Flying
6. Late of the Pier
"music to have asthma to"
7. Wretched Replica
"This Wretchedness descibed by The Good"
8. Pink Grease
"PINK GREASE SOMETHING LESS ORDINARY. TASTE IT!"
9. Objects
"SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISCO"
10. Vile Imbeciles
"!the cyst inside your fun!"
11. Camper Van Beethoven
"Camper Van Beethoven"
Make sure to press stop on the music players so they don't all play at once!
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[09 Aug 2006|12:00am] |
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Stars - Set Yourself On Fire |
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I know I've been really bad at updating lately (I have yet to post about Blues Fest!), but I think I've inherited my mum's love of Small World stories and I have come across a very cool one. I was reading an interview between Amy Millan (from Stars and Broken Social Scene) and Sam Roberts (what? Who set this up?) and Amy mentioned the first band she was ever in was called Edith's Mission and featured her, Emily Haines (Metric), and Ibi Kaslik. It's pretty cool that Emily Haines and Amy Millan were in a band together, but the name Ibi Kaslik seemed vaguely familiar as well, so [obviously] I Googled the band. It was all dead-ends in terms of their music, but I discovered that not only is this Ibi Kaslik a member of Broken Social Scene, but she wrote a book called Skinny. A book that I have owned for a year, before I knew about or listened to Broken Social Scene or Stars, and had no connection between her and Metric. Also, BSS's song "Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day)" is obviously about her, because Ibi isn't exactly a common name. I haven't actually read the book because I do that sometimes, but I definitely will once I've finished Fight Club.
Speaking of Stars/BSS and their connections to literature, I just found out about Torquil Campbell's (lead singer of Stars, and needless to say, a member of BSS) new band, called Memphis. Not only are they excellent, but their first video will be co-directed by Daniel Handler! Also known as Lemony Snicket! COOL. SO COOL. Here is their website.
On a completely unrelated note, I made this totally hot Captain Jack icon, but I can't upload it because the file size is too big. It's not animated and the image size is within the LJ limits, but for some reason it's 104KB. I've never had this problem before with a non-animated icon, so can anyone explain why this is happening? Do Macs just save things in a higher quality that is invisible to the naked eye, but not to the hard drive? Haha, I hope not. Also, is there an alternative solution to saving it as a lower quality JPEG? I tried taking out a little bit of colour, I tried trimming the edges, but with no luck.
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| I think it was in Ottawa that I had the best time |
[19 Jul 2006|12:13am] |
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The Bicycles and Ben Kweller |
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Having had the house to myself for two weeks, I can no longer stand living with people. They're everywhere, they don't clean up their messes (I'm such a hypocrite), I can't do my own grocery shopping, I can't have the TV whenever I want, and I have to be careful not to wake people up when I'm still going about my business in the wee hours of the morning. Moving out is going to be the best thing ever.
I'm working on a huuuge post of my musical adventures at Bluesfest (which was unbelievably fun). Some of it got deleted, but at the moment I've written about two and a half days out of a total of seven. I also have to sort through my six or seven thousand-something pictures. My collection of signed CD's has grown significantly, and I can now say I've had real conversations with popular musicians (I'm usually pretty awkward around people who know what to do with musical instruments)--funnily enough, both conversations were about Islands and the Unicorns. I also discovered a band today, called the Bicycles, and shortly thereafter I noticed I've already met one of them--this Andrew Scott guy is also a member of Meligrove Band. Small world! Meligrove Band put on an awesome show at Bluesfest, and now I'd really like to see the Bicycles live.
Speaking of small worlds, I forgot to mention in my last post a show I went to. It's not really important, but I want to talk about it anyway because it was so weird. At the last Islands show I was at, they said that Patrick Gregoire's side project, Sister Suvi, would be playing at Endhits (that little record store on Dalhousie). I went alone, never spoke to anyone, and obsessed about how much my unusually low-cut shirt was showing, but I had quite a pleasant evening nonetheless. It was this cute little gig where everyone sat cross-legged on the floor and the audience never grew to much more than thirty people. The small world part comes in with the opening band, the Soft Disaster (who were, for the record, good). I suppose this isn't all that surprising, considering how few good bands there are coming from Ottawa, but I noticed one of the members was this guy from the Acorn. Who doesn't have a side project these days? Anyway, I bought their CD. This is very unlike me, but I haven't listened to it yet. I'm going to save it for a while. I should also point out that during this set, Patrick Gregoire sat beside me for almost half an hour. This is significant because I have quite the crush on him. This wasn't as pleasant as I would have expected, as judging by his odour, he really needed a shower. Then Sister Suvi came on. Wow. I can't say I've heard anything like them. Their music was fine, but the vocals were terrible. I was under the impression that Patrick Gregoire can sing, as I've occasionally seen him do backup vocals for Islands at shows, but I was mistaken. The other vocalist, I believe her name was Muriel, was equally bad. (I think Patrick has a crush on Muriel, I kept seeing him do little things to get her attention like an awkward teenage boy would). The drummer was fine, but unfortunately is not present on their CD (which, ironically, is called My Nice Drums). Why did I buy their CD, you ask? First of all, my opinion is that vocals are almost always better in studio recordings than they are live, so I figured I'd give them a chance and hopefully they would magically sound good (they didn't). Second, it was only $5 and was so ghetto that really I just bought it to amuse myself. I mean, the Soft Disaster has a pretty disc that comes in a proper plastic case with a printed sleeve, and they were opening for a band whose CD is on some name brand blank CD with "Sister Suvi" Sharpied on, and that comes in a case made from paper taped together with some quickly doodled cover art photocopied onto it. You can listen to their strange and funny music on their MySpace! I took a few pictures, but I didn't make any effort to avoid camera shake or have nice aim or whatever, so they're not worth showing. You can see a picture from the show on the Endhits MySpace, though. That is all.
OH, ALSO! Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is really good! Glop and I went to the midnight premiere dressed as pirates and we had Chinese food for dinner. It was a good night.
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