Words have taught me that words are folly and mad

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Now that I’ve given that Besnard Lakes album a few more listens I’d say they’re like a cross between Low and The Dears. If that helps you at all.

.:.

If brevity is wit, it’s also musical genius. Here’re my 25 favourite songs that clock in under 2 minutes. Note that there’s a ton of brilliant music that comes in around 2:05, but I was strict about it. Also note: you could make several albums out of Guided By Voices and Pixies songs that come in under 2:10.

  • Bad Religion . “Hear It” (1:52)
  • Blues Brother Castro . “Bonny” (1:47)
  • Blur . “Song 2” (2:00)
  • Change Of Heart . “Away Goodbye” (0:57)
  • Constantines . “Thank You For Sending Me An Angel” (1:57)
  • Death Set . “Intermission” (1:55)
  • Deerhoof . “Our Angel’s Ululu” (1:37)
  • Evaporators . “Half-Empty Halls” (1:55)
  • Gord Downie . “Pillform 1” (1:44)
  • Grant Lee Buffalo . “Last Days of Tecumseh” (1:02)
  • Guided By Voices . “A Salty Salute” (1:29)
  • Matthew Good Band . “So Long Mrs. Smith” (1:40)
  • Mountain Goats . “Quito” (2:00)
  • Neutral Milk Hotel . “The King of Carrot Flowers, Pt. 1” (2:00)
  • Nirvana . “Downer” (1:43)
  • Pearl Jam . “Lukin” (1:02)
  • Pink Floyd . “Pigs on the Wing, Pt. 2” (1:27)
  • Ramones . “Judy Is A Punk” (1:31)
  • Reindeer Section . “Will You Please Be There for Me” (1:49)
  • Royal City . “Under A Hollow Tree” (1:52)
  • Single Frame . “Mod Style ’68” (1:47)
  • Sleater Kinney . “Little Mouth” (1:44)
  • Spiderbait . “Buy Me A Pony” (1:46)
  • T Rex . “We Love To Boogie” (1:57)
  • White Stripes . “Let’s Build a Home” (1:58)

Bonus coverage: my 10 favourite songs over 15 minutes long:

  • Bob Dylan . “Highlands” (15:48)
  • Dandy Warhols . “It’s a Fast-Driving Rave-Up With the Dandy Warhols Sixteen Minutes” (16:06)
  • Godspeed You Black Emperor! . “rockets fall on Rocket Falls” (20:42)
  • Godspeed You Black Emperor! . “Storm” (22:32)
  • Spiritualized . “Angel Sigh / Sway / 200 Bars” (18:55)
  • Mogwai . “Like Herod (the Government Commissions version)” (18:25)
  • Mogwai . “My Father My King” (20:12)
  • Pink Floyd . “Dogs” (17:06)
  • Velvet Underground . “Sister Ray” (17:27)
  • Yume Bitsu . “The Frigid, Frigid, Frigid Body of Dr. T.J. Eckleberg” (18:29)

How very Austin

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I thought I’d give the latest online radio site slacker.com (which was introduced this morning at SxSW) a try, and it’s playing pretty good stuff so far on the indie channel. The last three songs it played were “Nearly Lost You” by The Screaming Trees (a little indie-retro!), “Fidelity” by Regina Spektor and “Like The 309” by Johnny Cash. Next up: The Postal Service. Not bad, not bad. I just wish it had a blues channel.

[tags]slacker, slacker.com, screaming trees, regina spektor, johnny cash, postal service, sxsw[/tags]

On Bedford and Grand

Dan Dickinson3 Comments

Downloaded the Besnard Lakes album Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse tonight. I gave it a preview listen today at work and liked it as much as the one song I’d already heard: “For Agent 13”. I’m having a hard time classifying it, except to say that it’s…big. Lush is probably another word I’d use.

.:.

Sporting news: Montreal clawed back for a huge win tonight to stay in the playoff hunt. The Senators also did them a favour by beating the Rangers, but Toronto and Carolina both won to stay ahead of Montreal. If the Canadiens make the playoffs, it’ll be a minor miracle. Also: my March Madness picks are done and submitted. I never win these things, but it adds an interesting angle to the games.

.:.

Starbucks is launching its own music label. I figure this will be to music what the Oprah book club is to books…which is to say, not the ideal solution, but probably better than the alternative. Both Starbucks and Oprah tend to pick better than average, if somewhat safe, material (though some would disagree that Oprah’s latest pick The Secret falls into that category), and if people are going to slavishly follow some pop culture phenomenon, I’d rather it be Starbucks or Oprah than MTV or Britney Spears.

[tags]besnard lakes, montreal canadiens, march madness, starbucks music label, oprah, the secret[/tags]

In other news: buggy whip manufacturers planning a comeback

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From the Sydney Morning Herald: Pope blesses some of that old-time religion.

“THE Pope has urged greater use of Latin prayers and Gregorian chants in large public and international Masses as he moves to wind back contemporary expressions of church prayer life.”

That’s good news; the Catholic Church was apparently in danger of becoming a runaway progressive train, so the Pope did well to rein everything in. If things had continued unchecked for another eight or ten years, they might’ve allowed women in positions of power or some such. Fortunately the brakes were applied just in time.

[tags]catholic church, pope, latin mass[/tags]

They look so innocent

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As the reality that we’re moving in six weeks (!) sets in, I’ve begun thinking about what I’ll miss in this neighbourhood.

  • The Varsity theatre Hands down the best theatre in the city. Big, comfortable, great sound, good selection (not as indie as the Cumberland, not as mainstream as the Silver Cities), super-close and hardly any kids. The lack of good theatres downtown will make this loss even more painful. link
  • Fieramosca Obviously our favourite neighbourhood-y place. They know us there, and give us shit when we let 2 months go by without visiting. We’ll have to make special trips up here just to see them…and to have the delicious food, of course. link
  • M0851 The best clothing store around, on a quiet little street off the Bloor strip. Simple, well-made, understated clothing that I won’t see on GAP-clones. link
  • Whole Foods I don’t shop there for the organic produce (well, except for raspberries). I shop there for the ready-made salads, the corn-bread that’s almost as good as my mom’s, the Green & Black’s chocolate and the delicious little pakoras. link
  • Roy’s Square Jammed into this little alley around Yonge & Bloor are three of my favourite take-out restaurants — the Salad House, the Biryani House and Ritz Caribbean — as well as my main dry cleaner (shirts only; my suits go to Dove) and a whole bunch of other restaurants and shops that I don’t visit. link
  • The Dessert Lady The cappucino cinammon cookies, the espresso brownie bites, the pies, the mousse, the truffles…actually, yeah, it’s probably better than I move away from this one. link
  • Summerhill Granted, it’s not technically in my neighbourhood, but it’s a 20-minute stroll (or 1.5 subway stops) north and once I’m living south of here it won’t really make sense to pop up there like I can now. But between the ginormous LCBO, the Rebel House, and stores like All The Best Fine Foods, I might just spend the odd Saturday up there.
  • Hot Docs Again, this festival mainly takes place a few subway stops away from the neighbourhood — around Bloor & Bathurst — but since we have no intention of not participating, we’ll miss being able to zip home from a late-night screening in 5 minutes. link
  • Nick & Ralph These two funny old European men cut my hair and keep me entertained for half an hour every month or so. I’ll miss Nick teasing me about being some freak Maritimer who doesn’t like fish. link
  • Drunk guys stumbling out of the Brass Rail at 2AM Just kidding. I will miss them like I miss plantar warts. link

.:.

While perusing Ron Shevlin’s blog this morning I clicked on this link, and proceeded to laugh my ass off. Jessica Hagy draws little graphs and Venn diagrams about life; it sounds weird, but they really are hilarious little bits of life. One of my favourites is on the right.

.:.

Die Hard reference of the day: there’s a band called Nakatomi Plaza. I haven’t even heard their music, but I’m fairly certain they’re the best band ever to pick up instruments. You don’t pick a name like that unless you own.

.:.

The Onion’s AV Club lists some of the more interesting movies coming out this year, and it looks to be a good’un. New work from David Fincher, Quentin Tarantino, the Cohn Brothers, Paul Thomas Anderson, Ridley Scott, Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach, Francis Ford Coppola, Kimberly Peirce, Michel Gondry, Neil Jordan, David Cronenberg, Ang Lee, Danny Boyle, Robert Zemeckis and Steven Soderbergh (even if it is Ocean’s Thirteen) make 2007 look pretty promising. Plus, as they say, Spider-Man 3 and the Simpsons movie.

.:.

By the way, I just remembered that the title to my post where I talked about Me And You And Everyone We Know should have been “)) <> ((“. If you’ve seen the film you’ll understand why.

[tags]yonge and bloor, ron shevlin, indexed, jessica hagy, die hard, nakatomi plaza, onion av club, 2007 films, spider-man 3, simpsons movie[/tags]

I sprained something this morning, so kneeling will be difficult

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Dinner at Fieramosca again last night. Superduper as always, if way too much food and way too much Limoncello. Made it kind of tough to get out of bed this morning.

.:.

However, get out of bed we did and made it down to the Paramount Scotiabank theatre to see 300 (imdb | rotten tomatoes) in IMAX. A note on IMAX: it’s a great movie-going experience, but jeebus, do they ever need to get rid of the cheesy pre-film laser & sound show. Anyway, on to the main event: 300 was just slightly better than I expected it to be, and I expected it to be pretty good. This wasn’t classic, traditional cinema, but it was clearly a compelling story, and was skilfully, even artfully done.

Yes, it’s covered in blood and completely lacks nuance, but is it really any more mindless or formulaic than Music & Lyrics, which was playing across the hall? Or does it simply trade in male fantasy instead of female? In any case, the visuals of 300 — which are stunning — put it a step above most films solely in terms of craft. My biggest complaint: in a couple of scenes the “long moving scene as a female soloist sings something in latin” disease which infects so many epic movies flared up.

300 did $70 million at the box office, and broke the March opening weekend record, but it’ll fade quickly as all the fanboys would likely go in the first weekend.

.:.

After the film we decided to walk a bit and enjoy the weather, so we took the subway to Museum station and picked up a few things at Whole Foods. On the way out I checked Hero Burgers to see if they have veggie burgers; they do, and they’re quite tasty. Walked home from there, enjoying the sunshine & near-spring temperature, picking up a few things here and there. Caught up on some reading, watched the Selection Sunday show and am now trying to avoid reading another chapter of my %#@& textbook.

.:.

While Facebook’s been around for quite a while, it finally appears to be replacing MySpace as the preferred social networking site, just as MySpace replaced Friendster. Personally I find them all boring; unless you’re a teenager (or a musician, in the case of MySpace) I just don’t get the attraction. Then again I have a blog, so perhaps I just have a different strain of the disease. I guess I just find the friend-count popularity contest on those sites a little sad.

[tags]fieramosca, limoncello, 300, whole foods, hero burgers, facebook, myspace[/tags]

If I find a stick I'll put it in your mama's butt

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I’ve watched two episodes of The Sarah Silverman Program. I think I’m hooked.

.:.

Earlier this week we watched Me And You And Everyone We Know (imdb | rotten tomatoes) and I’m still not sure what I think about it. It was different, and certainly interesting, but it was almost over-quirky. I don’t know if I’ll remember liking the movie so much as I’ll remember it, full stop. There was a lot about it that was memorable.

It’s also weird to see former Deadwood actors in non-Deadwood roles.

.:.

Toronto city councillor Rob Ford: superdick.

“I can’t support bike lanes. Roads are built for buses, cars, and trucks. My heart bleeds when someone gets killed, but it’s their own fault at the end of the day.”

[via BlogTO]

[tags]sarah silverman, me and you and everyone we know, deadwood, rob ford[/tags]

Black Friday

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According to People magazine (which I don’t read, thank you; Stanzi told me about it), Salma Hayek is engaged.

“Double the good news for Salma Hayek: The actress is engaged to businessman boyfriend François-Henri Pinault – and she’s pregnant.”

Here’s what kills me…Even I’m better looking than that old dude!! OK, granted, he’s a rich old dude, but still…

However, I think I shall choose to look at it this way: my wife has better taste than Salma Hayek, which means I made the smart choice about who to marry.

Ahem.

[tags]salma hayek[/tags]

Hopeless? Or just pathetic?

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This post on The Movie Blog earlier today might’ve had the best title ever: “Eddie Murphy To Do Fantasy Island Remake – We are Officially A Hopeless Society.”

.:.

I can’t remember who told me about Open Culture, but it’s one of the most useful, educational websites I’ve ever used. It pointed Nellie to a podcast that helps her learn French, while I used it to find podcasts from top business schools around the US. It also pointed me to this NPR debate entitled “Is America Too Damn Religious?” I haven’t listened to it yet (not having a commute makes it hard to find a 40-minute block of time to listen to something), but you know I’m going to dig it.

Anyway, whoever told me about the site, thanks.

.:.

OK, must go and watch Montreal try to scratch their way back into a playoff spot.

[tags]eddie murphy, fantasy island, open culture, montreal canadiens, nhl playoffs[/tags]

Best films of 2006, redux

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Back in December I listed my favourite movies from 2006 (to date), but said I’d eventually re-do it, as a) I still had yet to see some of the best films of 2006, and b) I really think I need a whole category for documentaries. So here we go…take 2, in alphabetical order:

Best films

  • Brick
  • Children Of Men
  • Day Night Day Night*
  • The Departed
  • Fay Grim*
  • Little Children
  • Little Miss Sunshine
  • Pan’s Labyrinth
  • United 93
  • The Wind That Shakes The Barley*

Best documentaries

  • An Inconvenient Truth
  • An Unreasonable Man*
  • Blindsight*
  • Jesus Camp
  • Kurt Cobain: About A Son*

Granted, I still haven’t seen Borat, Deliver Us From Evil, Flags of Our Fathers, Half Nelson, Marie Antoinette, Shortbus, Shut Up And Sing, The Fountain, The History Boys or The Last King of Scotland.

* seen at the TIFF or Hot Docs, so may not even be out yet

[tags]best films of 2006[/tags]