this is water.
This is water. Some are lakes. So yes, I write about obvious things.
I also have some songs here:
 | Mike Christie on Of Montreal. |
 | Shan'e Harris on Of Montreal. |
| Mike Christie on Of Montreal. |
 | Ben on Of Montreal. |
| Mike Christie on Kitchener will save the w… |
I have no idea, but I know he digs Earth Wind and Fire. One of my favourite pictures of him so far. If I saw him I’d give him a Belmont and tell him to sit down and I would sing him a song and give him a drink with ice cubes and fizz and fruity sweetness. I worry that he can’t sleep, but I know I shouldn’t care. But hey.
Who doesn’t love a good vintage infomercial about mums discovering the internet, with a special cameo from a Fabio lookalike, complete with Mom Jeans and Janet Reno glasses! No mosh piiittt!
I can’t believe it’s not butter…. spray!
No news is good news. I listen to Jeff Buckley a completely understated amount, only owning Grace and Mystery White Boy. Every year or so I am reminded like if a post it note was a brick.
I think he should’ve been a woman. Not only so I could have less confusing feelings for him, but also because you know, it’s how he says it and not what he says. Right girls? Those young girls. Simple, but that line is one of the best lines of the last 15 years for me. Tout le monde veut simple quand même. Ou c’est trop cool ou trop vieux. Mais souvenez-vous.
Jeff Buckley – So Real
It’s probably even warmer where you are than here in Montreal. But hope you have a summery weekend, it’s time babies. Aren’t you relieved?
Parisian powerpop icons Phoenix have a relatively new record out, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. My buddy Hunter just got me a ticket to see them in Toronto in June at the Phoenix (ez zing!). Enjoy their single, 1901:
Phoenix – 1901
We surfaced a few days ago, it was great to see my daughter. When I got home I made sure to buy her her favourite candy – she actually loves Rockets. Really. When she saw me she screamed “Hey Hey Hey!” Eat that cat people. I think she just had Rockets a few days ago so she wasn’t as excited as I was hoping. I should have gotten her cotton candy, she would have felt amazing after that. Next time. To make it up, I took her to the kiddie amusement park. I was in. She calls the sunroof the windowtop, that’s the best. An F2 of straight shiny hair, it’s that herbal guacamole shampoo or whatever, serving those plates. How did she get straight hair? Her mother and I both definitely verge on curly, wavy at the very least. She looks French but you just can’t explain why, it really is that “I don’t know what”. Without a doubt, she was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen. The biggest eyes, you should’ve seen em. Anyway, when I get home I’m definitely having a Long Island Iced Tea.
All of my planning/transport geekfriends have been looking forward to this announcement today – to see who would win the insanely large $1.22 billion streetcar contract with the City of Toronto. Between German Siemens and Canadian Bombardier, the city made the (hopefully correct) protectionist decision. The design doesn’t totally wow me, but they’re still nice. Closer and closer to Back to the Future hovercars. Yarrr. Cause everyone wants a LO. RIDE. UHHH. duh nuh duh nuh.
Evidently the world’s largest wind turbine yet. The bigger the turbine the better I’ve heard in terms of efficiency, makes sense! The construction workers look like Legomen. [Via gizmodo]
Didn’t even know this existed until today. What a perfect person to showcase, this looks like a classic biodoc. Zero to hero to zero, our favourite story. And who better than a crazy boxer with an unmistakable speech impediment.
A video of Vanity Fair columnist Christopher Hitchens being voluntarily subjected to waterboarding. Decisions!
Here’s a great article I read awhile back that showcases the issue of torture. Could easily help you clarify your stance, although mine’s not 110%. I know it should be, but I’m trying to be honest with myself for those extremely rare cases. For those 24 fans, read here about the “myth” of the ticking time bomb.
I’ve had this song stuck in my head for the past monthish. I love the way the title sounds out loud. Montreal’s Land of Talk with Some are Lakes.
Land of Talk – Some Are Lakes
It started on a summer lake. A laissez-faire day of cheating at solitaire, a toasted ham and cheese sandwich, and rocking on a couch swing hung from the goldened and varnished thin pine planks. The supporting chains are eroding those metal turnbuckles, and making that awful sound. I mentioned how it would be cool to have J Mascis’ hair for a day, as long as I had a thick humbucker behind me, or if I was forced to play a Strat I’d want a kickass tube screamer. The thick and slightly foggy distance has been fun so far, but something will happen soon, by dusk I bet. I think of Ben Folds’ “Battle of Who Could Care Less“, because you’re just so aloof and my eye’s child is like yeast and sugar. When looking at objectively, I feel lucky I like your voice so much, I’m pretty picky about girls’ voices, it’s like a 95/5 split. Plus your bovine eyes, I’ll love you like I love you then I’ll die.
Watch them perform this song live on Jian Ghomeshi’s Q on YaChube.
Ready for obvious? It’s too easy to bash all types of media on either side of the border, on either side of the spectrum. But it’s still good to do, merely for the sake of re-re-re-learning that news media can be straight up poisonous, especially when we’re talking about 10s of millions of people treating it as gospel. I get it – bias is invetable. But as the major disseminator of information to the public, really. Shame shame, because you couldn’t say your girlfriend’s name. For sure, I’ll say it next time for suuuure.
Flipping through news TV clips yesterday where Sean Hannity and the pale moonlight dancer Dick Cheney said that he disapproved of Obama shaking hands with Chavez, even though Chavez ran up to him like a rookie cheerleader meets the quarterback in the caf. Hannity then led the conversation into Obama’s “soft and anti-American” stance. And of course the neo-McCarthyism gets fanned and fed grapes while the hammer and sickle quickly marquees over the weather in hell. I then proceeded to angervomitlaughcry, how I do. And then my brain thinks of images like this:
Rumsfeld and Hussein during the utterly false Reagan Era.
Nixon and Mao.
Reagan and Gorbachev.
Carter and Chavez.
Hypocrisy first, manipulation close second. Media commentators and politicians continue to conveniently forget the consequences of their own economic imperialism. Ignore the facts if you want, FOX News is the biggest news network in the U.S., I just don’t know if it’s because people want watery entertainment or are actually truthseeking. And don’t tell me it’s good for liberals for an opposing view, bad journalism is bad journalism. I’m not saying networks like MSNBC are the answer, but I hope people have room for two sides in their brain and never decide after 3 minutes of juice. I’m all for raising these probing questions about issues like torture and diplomacy. Let’s just bring a history textbook and a relatively open mind.
I’m not a self-loathing westerner, but I’m also not an arrogant prick. Torture does way more harm than any possible good. It rarely leads to good information and might just encourage more extremist behaviour. Don’t think of Jack Bauer please. One Al Qaeda member recieved waterboarding torture 183 times, and no new intel was received after torture began. Obvious obvious. Tens of millions of people watch bad journalism every day. Insert “fair and balanced” joke here. I too am fair and balanced – I am female and hate cheese. Truth and truth. (Don’t you believe a word).
CBC tees forever! So I got my hands on the piece CBC Radio 1 did on a new song me and collaborator Chris DePaul finished called “Soncarte” (literally translated in English “sound map” or grammatically incorrect “his map”). News reporter Ann Lang was gracious enough to try and clearly explain the technicalities behind the song, although difficult to do with the time she had and like most, limited experience in non-traditional music and audio engineering. If you haven’t listened to the song before, the end of the song has much less “experimental” aspects than what was played during the interview. Regardless, I am grateful for her and the CBC’s interest in the song! Here’s the piece:
CBC Radio 1 Montreal 88.5 FM – Daybreak – April 14th, 2009
And here again, is Soncarte. Read more about it here.
The Handkerchief Revival – Soncarte
Thanks to everyone who has listened or supported! Missions go.
[via everymusicsiteontheinternettoday]
Listen to Lykke Li’s beautiful version(s) of Kings of Leon’s “Knocked Up” from best LP Because of the Times here:
Lykke Li – Knocked Up (Kings of Leon cover)
Have you seen this? Even in the winter, my favourite park in the world remains eternally cool. BBC coverage of a red fox hunting for food in the middle of a Yellowstone winter.
via TerraGreen Environmental Marketing:
According to TerraChoice Environmental Marketing, only 2% of products labeling themselves as green are completely legit in their claims. The remaining 98%, not so much. The remainder commit “greenwashing” sins, that is they mislead consumers about the environmental benefits of a product or the practices of a company, said TerraChoice, which runs the Canadian government’s eco-labeling program and counts companies as diverse as Canon and Husky Energy among its customers… Other sins in the report include lack of proof, vagueness, irrelevance and outright lying. Products that make environmental claims and are sold in big box stores in the United States, Canada, Britain, and Australia were surveyed.
So companies know you care, and then take advantage of your compassion, concern, and your desire to buy quick and go. No more corporationy. So… what to do? Recycled toilet paper is a good start, phosphate free detergents help a bit but not a lot, and supporting renewable materials is a clear go. Other than that, wah wah west of greenwashing abounds and surrounds. More of the same great white hype. Smiiiiiiile!
