Category: Music

Working full time

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I just submitted the term paper. What a steaming pile of crap. I’m almost embarassed to put my name on it, but time just didn’t permit a stellar offering this time, so I’ll happily take a 9/15.

.:.

If you haven’t heard the 2005 album Tournament Of Hearts by The Constantines, go find it. You owe it to yourself.

.:.

Today was an interesting day at work. One of our senior executives has taken ~40 people and locked us all in a bunch of conference rooms with some strategy consultants. Most of the people in the room are fairly senior, and we’re all meant to be pretty smart, so some interesting ideas came up. You can tell they’re driving us toward something bigger (we’re there for two more days); hopefully my brain’s still in it come Friday at 5PM.

The most amazing thing is that they managed to get all these senior managers, directors and VPs to focus. No one was running off to take phone calls or dash back to the office. No one’s Blackberry went off in the sessions. It was like we were all teleported back to 1992 when attention spans were in vogue. Crazy.

[tags]strategy paper, constantines[/tags]

Best music of 2007

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

5/12 of the way through the year, anyway.

  • arcade fire . neon bible
  • besnard lakes . …are the dark horse
  • neko case . live from austin, texas
  • explosions in the sky . all of a sudden i miss everyone
  • kings of leon . because of the times

[tags]best music of 2007, arcade fire, besnard lakes, neko case, explosions in the sky, kings of leon[/tags]

Foiled

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At the last minute I had to cancel our plans to meet up with friends in Niagara On The Lake this weekend. This cold just isn’t going anywhere, and over the course of the day my voice has completely disappeared. I felt ridiculous leaving voicemails for people, sounding like a just-pubescent kid drawing his last breath.

I’ve never before taken a double-dose of neo-citran before going to sleep; I fear tonight it may be necessary.

.:.

Happy birthday, Star Wars. I was one year old when you were released, but I came to love you as I grew up. A little too much, maybe.

.:.

Speaking of my childhood obsessions, Chuck Klosterman writes about a Rush song that, 27 years later, shows how badly the mystique of radio has faded.

.:.

The Globe and Mail harrumphs all over the lolcat meme.

[tags]niagara on the lake, sick, star wars, chuck klosterman, rush, globe and mail, lolcat[/tags]

We can, we're strong, we'll beat it

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

New music I’ve been listening to:

  • a sunny day in glasgow . “5-15 train”
  • black taj . “woke up tired”
  • dandy warhols . “she sells sanctuary”
  • dt’s . “330 freedom”
  • fujiya & miyagi . “casettesingle”
  • jandek . “nancy sings”
  • junior boys . “in the morning (hot chip remix)”
  • katie melua . “i cried for you”
  • kissaway trail . “61”
  • maximo park . “our velocity”
  • motor . “bleep”
  • papercuts . “take the 227th exit”

The Kissaway Trail and DT’s songs are particularly good.

.:.

From the “disgusting for more than one reason” file, we have this from CNN: a woman in Texas says a jury shouldn’t blame her husband for microwaving their baby, they should blame the devil.

Holy shee-ite.

Anyway…

.:.

Wrote 2/3 of my paper today. Couldn’t bring myself to write the whole thing. Bad, bad MBA candidate…

[tags]kisaway trail, microwaved baby[/tags]

Water, water everywhere, but trust me, you do not want to drink it

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On sunny & windy days, this is a pretty typical view: beaucoup de sailboats. More pics over at flickr.

.:.

Enough already with the whining about gas prices. Seriously. It’s cheaper than milk. It’s cheaper than orange juice, Coke or cough syrup. It’s cheaper than bottled water. And yet, there are people like this:

“It’s always like this,” Harris said as she filled her SUV at the Esso station at Lake Shore Blvd. E. and Leslie St. “They spike it up on weekends. They spike it up on the long weekend. They always have an excuse. It’s refinery problems, or it’s terrorism in the Middle East, or hurricanes. Oil is down, so there’s no reason for high prices.”

First of all, you drive an SUV, there’s no reason for you to complain about high gas prices either. If you can afford a gas guzzler, you can’t be strapped for cash.

Second…the same free market economy that made you wealthy enough to buy an SUV is what makes gas prices go up and down according to demand. Of course they’re out to charge you as much as they can; why wouldn’t they? YOU KEEP PAYING IT!!

And please, no excuses about “I need my car to get to work.” Buy a smaller car. Take public transit. Bike. Walk. Car pool. Choose to live closer to work in the first place. If you can’t (or won’t) do any of those things, then by all means, produce the contract you signed when you bought your car stating that gas prices would never, ever go up. Don’t have one? Then buy some oil company stock to offset the losses that you’ve chosen to inflict on yourself.

Side note: it’s interesting to watch the Toronto Star cover stories like this. On one hand, the Star wants to stick to big business and take the side of the poor consumer, but on the other hand they want to be the environmental advocate (ironic, considering they’re a newspaper) so they come across as conflicted in these cases.

.:.

As much as I despised Jerry Falwell, and as cold an emotionless as I can be sometimes, and as much as I think it’s hilarious, I simply cannot bring myself to buy this shirt.

[note: if you don’t get the punchline, read this.]

.:.

A week-old post on Torontoist that I didn’t look at until just now has some great concert footage of the Arcade Fire. The scene in the middle of the clip is the best one; my favourite part is how Richard Reed Parry replicates a snare drum sound.

[tags]toronto, lake ontario, sailboats, spire condominium, gas prices, toronto star, jerry falwell, torontoist, arcade fire[/tags]

Us kids know

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Just got back from the Arcade Fire concert at Massey Hall. I’m very tired and I need sleep so this will be brief, but suffice it to say that since AF concerts are legislated under government law to kick ass, we enjoyed ourselves. Point form recap*:

  • I couldn’t take my eyes off Regine. She was completely full of energy tonight, and seemed to be having a blast. The way she was dancing during “Haiti” or strutting around the stage during “Antichrist Television Blues”, she was just magnetic. I watched her far more than I watched Win or anyone else.
  • Chill moments: the end of “No Cars Go”, ‘I don’t want to live in America no more…’, the end of “Haiti” (always so much better live), “Rebellion (Lies)” start to finish and the 2nd encore: “Neighbourhood #1”.
  • I apparently missed the memo, ’cause I wasn’t wearing a hoodie.
  • Massey Hall good: I can walk home in five minutes; Massey Hall bad: the crazy ass seats. No matter how many times I sit in them I will never get used to them. I guess it doesn’t matter; the second AF walked on stage we were on our feet.
  • There were a lot of…umm, older folks at the concert.
  • I have a crush on Sarah Neufeld.
  • The middle of the show dipped a bit, just because the 2nd-tier songs on Neon Bible can’t keep up the intensity of the anthemic songs from Funeral. It was kind of nice, though, to have that texture sandwiched in between all the bombast. I just wish people would resist the urge to clap along to a quiet, lovely song like “Neon Bible”.

Many thanks to my friend BN for miraculously finding us some tickets at (almost) the 11th hour, and to M2 for picking the tickets up and coming along.

Good night.

* “Point Form Recap” would be a great name for a band

[tags]arcade fire, massey hall, sarah neufeld[/tags]

"Life all comes down to a few moments. This is one of them."

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

There will be a sequel to Wall Street. This will either be very cool, or just hilariously awful. That movie worked in the 80s for a reason; I don’t know if it can still be pulled off.

.:.

I took my new Zen out of the box last night, fondled it for a minute and then put it back. This weekend, my lovely, I promise. The time will be right. The stars are aligned. Get ready…my 39GB of music is on the way. “It is at this point that I will fill your hard drive to the break of dawn.”

[UPDATE] I just re-read the last paragraph. I sound like Smoove B.

[tags]wall street sequel, nomad zen vision:m[/tags]

Hey look…other stuff is happening besides me moving!

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Found while trying to get control of the RSS tide:

  • BlogTO reviews The Ghosts Of Abu Ghraib. With all the packing and such I forgot to write the film when we saw it at Hot Docs a week ago.  It was an excellent documentary; director Rory Kennedy let the story tell itself by interviewing the Abu Ghraib guards who were convicted for their role in the torture, and gave context by framing the story with the findings of the Milgram experiment. Excellent documentary. Highly recommended.
  • I agree with Esquire’s Angry German’s rant on punctuality. Next to smoking, being late is the fastest way to make me think you’re an inconsiderate jackass. Not occasionally late, mind you; I know things sometimes happen. But there are those people who’re just perpetually late, and those people are asshats.
  • The Quill & Quire’s blog points to a discussion between Lynn Coady and Christy Ann Conlin. Both Nova Scotian writers, they wonder whether it’s easier to write about where you’re from, or to write about a place if you’re “from away.”
  • Kirsten Dunst likes The Arcade Fire and Regina Spektor. ‘Cause I didn’t think she was hot enough already…

[tags]ghosts of abu ghraib, hot docs, milgram experiment, esquire magazine, angry german, punctuality, quill & quire, lynn coady, christy ann conlin, kirsten dunst, arcade fire, regina spektor[/tags]