Category: Music

The musical meat grinder, um, grinds on

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

In the last few days at work I’ve had a few periods of uninterrupted work at my desk (!), allowing me to screen some music that’s been sitting in my “inbox” for months, including:

  • apostle of hustle . national anthem of nowhere
  • dalek . abandoned language
  • low . drums and guns
  • ted leo . living with the living

None of them exactly set my world on fire, though each has a few good songs.

Listening to Ted Leo always makes me think of Ottawa, and for an odd reason: I always think of his song/album “Hearts of Oak”, which always makes me think of the Royal Oak (caution: site has loud & cheesy embedded music), an Ottawa pub my brother and I frequented when I lived there for a summer. In fact, we went there on the day that Keith’s was first introduced to Ontario. Anyway, yeah, that’s Ted Leo for me. My brain strolls in weird directions like that.

.:.

Last night was the second episode of the latest season of The Shield (aired here in Canada anyway; the season’s already done), which I’ve always said is one of the best shows on TV. It made me appreciate The Sopranos even more; without the success of The Sopranos, shows like The Shield (and characters like Vic Mackey) wouldn’t exist, let alone entire networks like F/X.

[tags]apostle of hustle, dalek, low, ted leo, royal oak, the shield, the sopranos, f/x[/tags]

"Damn, we're gonna win this thing!"

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A few good songs have crossed my path in the last few days: “Road To Home” by Girl In A Coma, “The Gold We’re Digging” by Parts and Labor and “2080” by YeaSayer (thanks Joe). I’m also digging Patti Smith‘s cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and Chris Cornell‘s cover of “Billie Jean”. Also: the mashup of The Ramones‘ “I Wanna Be Sedated” with Avril Lavigne‘s “Girlfriend”. It’s like listening to old bubblegum.

.:.

My thoughts on the Sopranos finale: I liked it. I like it even more now that I’ve thought about it. I’ve put the rest of my thoughts after the jump; if you haven’t watched the episode, then DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK. There are spoilers yonder.

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The night shift lullaby

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I just made my dad a CD, which I shall stick in the mail tomorrow. He likes getting them every now and then, and I like making them; it’s inspiring and reassuring to know that my 64-year-old father likes good music. Here’s the tracklist:

  1. cat power . “kingsport town”
  2. r.l. burnside . “old black mattie”
  3. amy millan . “blue in yr eye”
  4. magnolia electric company . “the night shift lullaby”
  5. black keys . “you’re the one”
  6. yo la tengo . “my little corner of the world”
  7. jessie mae hemphill . “standing in my doorway crying”
  8. old crow medicine show . “minglewood blues”
  9. ox . “1913”
  10. broken west . “down in the valley tonight”
  11. great lake swimmers . “i could be nothing”
  12. pablo . “wall street”
  13. william elliot whitmore . “does me no good”
  14. avett brothers . “shame”
  15. kings of leon . “the runner”
  16. sufjan stevens . “amazing grace”

I suspect he’ll especially like the songs by R.L. Burnside, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Ox (since it’s a Woody Guthrie cover), William Elliot Whitmore and The Avett Brothers. The Yo La Tengo, Pablo and Kings of Leon are stretches, but you have to keep the old man on his toes.

[tags]mixed cd[/tags]

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

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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

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

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]