Category: Music

b Profitable

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Here’s how today went:

  • Got haircut
  • Rousted Nellie out of bed and got some breakfast (well, brunch; it was after 12 by this point) downtown at b Espresso Bar. I like it there
  • Stopped in at Henry’s to see if they have the wide-angle lens we’vebeen looking for. They do. We shall go back soon and see if they’ll take our old camera on trade
  • Went to the condo sales centre. We just wanted another look at the model suite similar to our unit, but Nellie was convinced they wouldn’t show us if they knew we’d already bought, so we pretended to be in the market for a new condo. We had a look around, and also got an updated price list. This was interesting, as the one remaining unit like ours listed for $53,000 more than we paid, and our particular unit’s much better (much higher, 400 sq. foot balcony, higher ceilings, better finishings, etc.). Nice to know that 3 years of waiting has paid off fiscally…so far
  • Watch Montreal lose to the Islanders
  • Tried to nap
  • Bought groceries
  • Worked on paper for MBA course
  • Wrote this

.:.

After giving the Arcade Fire‘s Neon Bible several listens, I’m convinced it’s at least in the same ballpark as Funeral and has the potential to be just as good, if not as…I don’t know, epic. It has two brilliant songs, “Intervention” and “Antichrist Television Blues”; are they as good as “Neighbourhood #1” and “Rebellion (Lies)”? I’ll need a few hundred more listens to know for sure.

.:.

How cute is my wife? Tonight, while I finished up a paper for school, she watched Pretty In Pink in the other room. Wait, wait, that’s not the cute part (in fact, I find everything about that movie fairly repulsive, especially Molly Ringwald). Here’s the cuteness: when I took a break and went into the bedroom to watch a bit of the Raptors game, she slid a piece of paper under the door that said, in huge letters, “Je t’aime”.

Awwwww.

[tags]b espresso bar, henry’s camera, spire condominium, arcade fire[/tags]

All of a sudden I have new music

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Bought three new albums today, from three different online stores:

  • Explosions In The Sky . All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone (from eMusic)
  • Great Lake Swimmers . Ongiara (from Zunior)
  • Clinic . Walking With Thee (from Puretracks)

By the way, if you haven’t heard of Zunior, it’s a great place to find Canadian music. Their prices are excellent, they use MP3 format, they include the album art in the download and you can even download high-quality lossless files for an additional $2/album.

[tags]explosions in the sky, great lake swimmers, clinic[/tags]

My Nomad's current playlist

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment
  • besnard lakes . “for agent 13”
  • bloc party . “i still remember”
  • broken west . “down in the valley”
  • champion . “keep on”
  • cinch . “get up and get out”
  • hands . “so sweet”
  • kristin hersh . “in shock”
  • loney, dear . “i am john”
  • pablo . “wall street”
  • prids . “let it go”
  • silversun pickups . “lazy eye”
  • talking heads . “sugar on my tongue”
  • wrens . “13 months in 6 minutes”
  • youth group . “sorry”

[tags]nomad, playlist[/tags]

By the left…quick March!

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

The first week and a half of March is looking pretty sweet:

  • March 2: Black Snake Moan and Zodiac hit theatres
  • March 6: the new Arcade Fire album Neon Bible drops (officially, anyway; I’ve already listened to it, but I’ll still buy it)
  • March 9: 300 comes to theatres

Of course, there are more good movies (like Sunshine) and albums (like Ted Leo‘s Living With The Living) coming later that month, and then comes the sports fiesta — March Madness, NHL playoffs, NBA playoffs — during which I become one with my TV. Besides, it’s usually starting to feel pretty spring-y by late March/early April, and spring’s my favourite time of year.

[tags]black snake moan, zodiac, arcade fire, 300, sunshine, ted leo, i love march[/tags]

Giant little animals

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Working from home today so that the pulled muscle in my back can heal. The chairs at work just seem to reverse any healing progress it makes at night, so I’m giving it a day off. So far so good.

While I work I’m listening to a mix I made last night of my favourite 20 songs from last year. Well, sort of…I spent about 20 minutes figuring out which songs should be on there, and it might change slightly if I took more time with it, but cost/benefit and all that. I also kept it to one song per artist; otherwise Regina Spektor and Band Of Horses would’ve had multiple entries.

Here ’tis:

  • amy millan . “hard hearted (ode to thoreau)”
  • and you will know us by the trail of dead . “wasted state of mind”
  • asobi seksu . “red sea”
  • band of horses . “monsters”
  • camera obscura . “razzle dazzle rose”
  • cold war kids . “hospital beds”
  • heartless bastards . “blue day”
  • hidden cameras . “awoo”
  • jeremy enigk . “damien dreams”
  • ladyhawk . “war”
  • mates of state . “fraud in the 80’s”
  • mercers . “use for abuse”
  • mogwai . “we’re no here”
  • neko case . “john saw that number”
  • raising the fawn . “carbon paper”
  • regina spektor . “field below”
  • swan lake . “all fires”
  • tv on the radio . “wolf like me”
  • viva voce . “we do not fuck around”
  • yeah yeah yeahs . “cheated hearts”

.:.

We’ve opted out of our organic delivery service. There was nothing wrong with the food, but we just weren’t eating our money’s worth. I guess I’m not a very good vegetarian yet…

[tags]best songs of 2006, green earth organics[/tags]

I'm cryin', cryin', cryin' over you…

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

You may have heard in the last few weeks that Telus is now selling porn via their mobile phones. Now an archbishop in Vancouver is protesting:

Archbishop Raymond Roussin is upset, saying the move takes the “accessibility of pornographic material further into the public realm.”

Roussin told The B.C. Catholic newspaper that the move is especially ill-considered because of the problems pornography is causing in society.

“Given the increasing awareness about the problem of sexual addiction to pornography through Internet access, and the abuse that this perpetuates of vulnerable persons, Telus’s decision is disappointing and disturbing.”

…

He is also considering directing Catholic institutions to terminate their contracts with Telus Mobility.

He might as well leave the contract where it is. The other carriers will be on board with this as soon as humanly possible.

.:.

The Onion AV Club lists their 15 pop movies owned by movie scenes. While some are no-brainers — “Stuck In The Middle With You” in Reservoir Dogs, “Lust For Life” in Trainspotting, “The End” in Apocalypse Now, “Tiny Dancer” in Almost Famous — they missed one which seems obvious to me: “Goodbye Horses” in Silence Of The Lambs. Nobody who has ever seen that film will think of anything but the sight of Ted Levine tucking away his bait & tackle as the song ends. In fact, one of the few funny scenes in Clerks II was predicated on everyone knowing the relationship between that song and that scene.

That’s not to mention “Mad World” from Donnie Darko or “Bohemian Rhapsody” from Wayne’s World, both of which I think are mentioned in The Onion’s comments.

.:.

After our big blowout dinner Friday night we stayed low-key yesterday, watching two movies: Ask The Dust (imdb | rotten tomatoes) and The Wages Of Fear (imdb | rotten tomatoes). The former was a 1930s period piece, unremarkable that it featured a great deal of Salma Hayek nakedness. Even with that, I fell asleep once or twice. The latter was a French movie from 1952 about four men who drive trucks loaded with nitroglycerin through the South American wilderness. The first hour seemed slow and a little silly, but it was really just all scene-setting for the final 90 minutes, which was pretty much non-stop tension. Considering the film’s 55 years old I think it’s held up pretty well.

[tags]telus, cell phone porn, onion av club, ask the dust, wages of fear[/tags]

Wonderbread and Cheez-Whiz, gimmie!

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

It’s cold. It’s colder than cold. It’s hell ass balls cold. It’s so cold every car made before 2002 squeals when it’s started. It’s so cold my headphone cord turned into a pipe on the way home.

.:.

My Nomad randomly played “What An Idiot He is” by Ashley MacIsaac today. I don’t think I’ve heard it in eight years; had I, I would’ve wondered how Ashley came to write a song about future president Bush.

“He’s always got a dumb expression on his face
Makes me feel sorry for the human race
‘Cause I’ve got a funny feeling that he’s runnin’ the place…”

.:.

I’m on my third WordPress theme of the day. I kind of like this one so far.

[tags]cold weather, ashley macisaac[/tags]

Like sugar in the chair

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

New stuff I added to the Nomad this morning:

  • besnard lakes . “for agent 13”
  • bloc party . “i still remember”
  • champion . “keep on”
  • champion . “no heaven”
  • cinch . “get up and get out”
  • hands . “so sweet”
  • kristin hersh . “in shock”
  • pablo . “wall street”
  • talking heads . “sugar on my tongue”
  • youth group . “sorry”

.:.

I never got all the fuss about Sienna Miller. I’ve seen pictures of her, I’ve seen her in movies…I was just never that impressed. But when I saw her on The Daily Show a few nights ago…holy smokes. I think I get it now.

[tags]sienna miller, daily show[/tags]

trio | ripetizione

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I’ve been listening to three songs over and over for the past few days:

  • “No Heaven” by Champion
  • “The End’s Not Near” by Band Of Horses
  • “Dummy Room” by The Vindictives

They’re three pretty different songs, but all very catchy and very good.

.:.

It’s back to the schooly grind tomorrow. I have over 1100 pages to read, 2 cases, a term paper and 6 topic discussions to write, and 6 quizzes to take between now and the end of April.

[tags]champion, band of horses, vindictives, mba[/tags]

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction."

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Proof of evolution: just five years ago Stephen Harper called the Kyoto Accord a money-sucking “socialist scheme”, but today he’s a good steward of the environment. Welcome to the party, Steve.

.:.

There was an interesting article in the October issue of The Atlantic called “Prophetic Justice” about the grounds on which terrorism suspects are being tried, the ignorance and fear that allows the situation, and the political climate that fosters it.

That inculcation has ample source material, Haykel said, because many hadith and Koranic verses seem to advocate violence; most Muslims just know not to take them literally. Is it possible, he was asked during cross-examination, that someone radically inclined might take al-Kousi’s words as a call to action? “Well, the Koran can be taken as a call to action,” Haykel answered. “You don’t need to listen to al-Kousi.”

Religious speech is extreme, emotional, and motivational. It is anti-literal, relying on metaphor, allusion, and other rhetorical devices, and it assumes knowledge within a community of believers. Its potency is deliberate: faith is about calling on a higher power, one stronger than ourselves, and the very language we use helps inflate that strength. We arm ourselves (itself a violent metaphor) with prayer.

This is hardly unique to Islam. The question of how to interpret a text may be as old as writing, and it applies equally to determining where the power of religious speech inheres. In authorial intent? A reader’s interpretation? Historical or modern context? Over the centuries, and even today, the Bible and Christian theology have helped justify the Crusades, slavery, violence against gays, and the murder of doctors who perform abortions. The words themselves are latent, inert, harmless—until they aren’t.

It’s long, but worth the read.

.:.

My favourite new source of excellent music: the KEXP “song of the day” podcast. It’s usually something I haven’t heard, and is almost always very good.
[tags]stephen harper, kyoto accord, prophetic justice, terrorism, kexp[/tags]