Friday, November 21, 2008

You Can Call Them TNATGDSD For Short.


Beat (Health, Life And Fire) - Thao Nguyen

This is a band I have been holding back on, Thao Nguyen and The Get Down Stay Down.  I was gonna post them probably in my year-in-review extravaganza but then last night on NBC's hit new comedy Kath & Kim (actually pretty funny) I heard one of their songs on in the background.  So i thought I would pass the news along before I they start showing up everywhere so I can take some sort of credit (credit: my friend out in B.C., Jonathan, told me about them if this impresses you and you would like to learn more about him I can put you in touch with him).  I am having a lot of trouble picking just one or two songs so I will post three.  "Beat" is their best song, "Bag of Hammers" is a good one as well and "Geography" makes sense. Their latest release, We Brave Bee Stings and All, is...like amazing and stuff...of the 11 songs I think 5 of them are 4 stars or better (yes, you should be impressed by that...Unless you hate these songs then that stat should probably not impress you and you should really wonder why you are taking musical advice from me).Bag Of Hammers - Thao Nguyen

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

TIME for a Change

When I was in third year university TIME magazine started showing up on our door step with a mysterious name on it.  After a few weeks they started to pile up, I gave in and started reading them.  I look back on this time in life as the time when I was most informed about the world at large (read: America, Iraq, Social Security and The Bush Doctrine and only these topics because that is all they focused on).  Recently I decided that I was out of touch and had to get back in the loop.  I ran back to the tried and true.  I am now 6 issues into my TIME Subscription (with my name on it) and have noticed some changes to the format.  They are using the same philosophy that drives O magazine.  Why put different things on the cover if you can just put the same person on week after week.  Barack Obama is on all 6 covers.

This fact has lead me to the conclusion that Barack Obama will probably be named TIME magazine's Person Of The Year.  I guess he is a worthy choice.  He has accomplished quite a bit in the last year and made a total of 13 covers of the 48 published this year.  With 8 issues left this year I am guessing that, your boy, Barack will be on atleast one more cover (but probably 3 more).  He will join a list that includes some of History's Greatest Monsters.  Some of the highlights from the list include:

Adolph Hitler (1938)
Joseph Stalin (1939 & 1942)
The Baby Boomers (1966)
Richard Nixon (1971 & 1972)
The Computer (1982)
The Endangered Earth (1988...what a scam that was...20 years later and look at it now! Never been better)
Vladimir Putin (2007)
and
You! (2006)

Oh no.  All this talk of Person of the Year just reminded me that I have to do a best '08 list.  Its the most important job any blogger has.  I'm gonna have to start studying now.

In other news, I just watched Quantum of Solace.  If you see one Bond movie this year....Make it this one.  There was almost no dialogue and the story was weak...but man can Paul Hagis write a car chase!  Keep your eye out for the polite Canadian in the denouement.  Way to represent your homeland Paul.  There was that perfect mix of anti-corporation and pro-environment sentiment.  The sort of sentiment that lets you know it was made by a studio that is owned by a multi-national corporation and that the filming of this movie was done all over the world and required explosions and car chases that left a carbon foot print the size of a NASCAR season.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Interesting Link

Hiroshima: the Lost Photographs.
Long story short: Guy walking through a japan city and for some reason is rummaging through peoples garbage. He stumbles upon a suitcase full of black and white photos. he scoops it up and takes it home to see what they are. He figures out that he just found 700 pictures of Hiroshima taken a few days after the US dropped the bomb. A group of Japanese photographers were asked to go through the city and document the destruction. I guess shortly after the these pictures were taken publishing them was outlawed...so they sat in a suitcase in a basement and were recently discovered on the curb.
Here is the short story longer.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Musical Test

Me And You - Slow Club
I want to start posting some of my favorite songs from a some bands that I will someday deny ever liking them because they have become popular.  I'm testing out a few sites that allow me to do such a thing.  Unfortunately, blogger won't let me upload MP3s for some reason.
This song is by Slow Club. I really like them.  They are from the England so they probably have awful teeth.  You may have heard them on the Ritz Cracker commercial.  They suck...sell outs.
When I Go - Slow Club

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Obama Went Electric and CNN went Holographic!



I convinced myself that I was not going to watch any coverage of the US presidential election.  The 2 year campaign had sapped my strength and I was sick of all the punditry, predictions and pageantry (you find a better p-word).  Shortly after the Leafs lost in overtime I found the Daily Show and half enjoyed their coverage.  At about 12am (local time) they reported that CNN was reporting that the polling stations were reporting that Barack Obama (never heard of him) was the President Elect.  So I flipped over to CNN to see if Larry King was taking calls.  The discussion was focused on the historical implication of this election.  They convinced me to stick around to see what Obama was going to say.  I watched Mccain's concession speech and was left wondering why he hadn't been this eloquent all campaign.  The truth is he probably gave more thought to his concession speech than any other speech he had given in the past 6 months.

CNN cut directly to the Chicago park where hundreds of thousands of people had gathered in anticipation of the Obama victory (how much longer until Obama gets added to my spell check?).  I was not really shocked by the number of people who had shown up.  I was surprised to see Jesse Jackson in the crowd, he looked like he showed up on his own and had no special access to the backstage area.  Then Oprah (seriously, if Oprah is not in spell check I don't think Obama stands achance) showed up, but she may have been a CNN hologram (Help me Obi Won, You are my only hope!  that was pretty messed up!).  The presence of the the (super powerful) Celebrity Lobby was not surprising.  When Obama finally took the stage that is when things got interesting.


 The whole thing seemed more like a rock concert than it did a victory party.  Everyone had this look on their face.  I feel like it was the same look I had when I used to think Gord Downie was the greatest thing ever, thinking to myself this is gonna be the greatest show ever!  Everyone had an Obama T-shirt or button (a major fashion faux-pas: wearing the t-shirt of the band you are going to see?!  I can let it slide because I doubt most of those people have a second favorite politician or have ever been to another political rally).  I can just imagine people telling eachother what big Obamaniacs they are. 
"I saw him when he opened for Kerry in '04"
"My favorite was his speech on race relations in Philly"
"I saw him back when he was running for senate"
"Yeah, he probably sold-out when he refused the public campaign funds but can you blame him?"
"I got to see him back when he toured Europe!"
"I first heard of Obama after i watched the video for "My Humps" on Youtube and I really wanted to know what the Black Eye Peas think about politics.  From that point on I've supported whoever Will.I.Am was supporting"

And they were all thinking: "I hope he plays his hit single, 'Yes We Can'!  I love that song"
When he pulled it out of his bag of tricks the crowed went CRAZY!  Like when a crowd catches the first notes of Yellow at a Coldplay concert....sorry I don't know why I picked such a mediocre song form such a mediocre band....I was stuck on this one for a long time.
Obama conquered the charts and Teusday (man, Teusday isn't even in spell check...oh wait) Tuesday night was his home coming show, after an exhausting American tour and media blitz.  It was his triumphant moment!  It was a really powerful moment.

I've got some bad news for all those Obamaniacs.  He is gonna take a short break and go back into the studio to write a new record!  You might not hear from him for a few weeks or even a month (what is CNN gonna talk about?).  The worst part is...he may retire 'Yes We Can' from his touring repertoire, turning his back on the single that made him famous.  You might hear it again but he is probably tucking it away for a VERY special occasion.  It is a great device and I would hate to see it over played and eventually lose all meaning.  He's gonna return with a new album and his songs (I mean speeches but I'm sticking to my metaphor) will focus on actual issues instead of ideals and hypotheticals.   

And if that is not bad enough...if history has taught me anything...the new album will probably be a letdown.  It is gonna get so over hyped by the blog-0-sphere and the expectations will be so great that there is no chance it will measure up.  As a functioning member of that particular "o-sphere" I feel it is my duty to warn you, but...

I might be wrong...Obama might be that good.  All I know is that the times are a changing and I am audaciously hopeful for the future...Yes We Can Indeed!

Sunday, November 2, 2008

There Is Nothing on the Wing!

My new camera is capable of putting together stop motion movies.  I thought my most recent flight home was a good opportunity to play around with it.  The footage is a little jittery but I can assure you it was a smooth flight.  The guy next to me thought I was at least a little weird.  So in this movie I have my flight home, a sunrise and my flight back to Charlottetown.  The music is from swedish rockers Peter Bjorn and John and it is called I Start To Melt.  It was the most fitting song I could find.  When I say fitting I mean that it fit the time almost perfectly.  Hopefully I will get a little better and steadier before my next flight home in Christmas.  I actually started a YouTube account for this movie.  Have you heard of this YouTube thing?  A few things i might draw your attention to:  on the way out of Toronto you can see beautiful Hamilton and on the way into PEI you can see the original Bridge to Nowhere (The Confederation Bridge). Enjoy and Thank You for choosing Westjet.