rrr

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Let’s Get Out Of This Country, the new Camera Obscura album, is pretty good. I bought it last night. Downloaded it on Soulseek around 8:00, listened to it between 8:30 – 9:30 while I did work, liked it, signed on to eMusic and downloaded the real version around 9:35.

.:.

Also good (so far…I’m only a few songs in) is Or from a Japanese band called Spangle Call Lilli Line. I don’t know what it is with me and Japanese bands (or at least Japanese lyrics) lately. I heard about them on an old 75minutes podcast; I’m several months behind but doing my best to catch up.

.:.

It’s fun to meet and talk to people who’re smarter than you, but it’s a little intimidating when they’re a freaking student. I mean, I’d like to think I’m a pretty smart guy; I read Wealth Of Nations, and I think I even understood it. It was about girls, right? Just kidding. Anyway, I should just never google people before I meet them; it’s depressing how little I’ve accomplished at the age of 30, let alone 20-whatever.

[tags]camera obscura, emusic, spangle call lilli line, 75minutes, wealth of nations, paraphrasing high fidelity[/tags]

An apology in point form

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Sorry, I’ve been too busy to blog anything terribly interesting because:

  • The course I’m doing right now is killer. I was talking to a classmate today, and he concurred: the workload for this one is much, much heavier than anything else we’ve done. It’s interesting, but it’s time-consuming. I guess I was due for one of these; too many so far have been crazy easy.
  • It’s the summer. Days that aren’t hotter than the hubs of hell draw me outside.
  • Family’s been visiting, and family trumps blogging.
  • I seem to be reading (for fun, in addition to for school; I finally finished Cluetrain, Planet Simpson and No War: America’s Read Business In Iraq) again, not to mention finally putting a dent in our Zip queue.
  • Work is busy…not so much because I have impending deadlines, but because I feel a bit rejuvenated. It’s just as frustrating and bureaucratic as ever, but I seem more determined than ever to kick bureaucracy’s ass. I’ll let you know how that goes.

However, I can report some things that grabbed my eye today, but only in point-form:

Music:

  • I’m going to miss Asobi Seksu at the Horseshoe in September as I’ll be away on course. Frig.
  • There’ll be a new Trail Of Dead album in October.
  • The Mercury Prize shortlist has been announced, and I couldn’t give a toss about any of the finalists. The only one I liked at all is the Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan album, and even that wasn’t great.
  • The Weeds theme song next season will be sung by a different artist every week. Lined up so far: Death Cab For Cutie, Regina Spektor, Elvis Costello and Jenny Lewis. Cool. “Little boxes…”
  • The new Johnny Cash disc, American V…magnifique.

Movies:

Sports:

  • Bill Simmons has picked a favourite English Premiership League team. He settled on Tottenham Hotspur, because “If London was the Corleone family, Manchester United was Sonny and Arsenal was Michael, then the Spurs would be Fredo with a little more street smarts.” Brilliant.

Right, that’s it. Back to work for me.

[tags]cluetrain, planet simpson, no war, asobi seksu, trail of dead, mercury prize, isobel campbell, mark lanegan, weeds, johnny cash, clerks ii, lady in the water, arrested development movie, all your snakes are belong to us, bill simmons, tottenham hotspur[/tags]

Here's why my day has sucked so far

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  1. This morning in the shower I got shampoo in my eyes. A few minutes later, and God knows why, I had “2 Legit 2 Quit” stuck in my head. I’m not sure which was more painful.
  2. Nellie was sick today and had to stay home, so she went back to bed. As I was getting dressed to go spend the day in the office, she was curled up on the bed, all cozy and surrounded by cats…sick or not, I envied her.
  3. I’ve had killer heartburn all morning, so I skipped my usual morning diet pepsi and bought some milk. I got back to my desk and drank half the carton in one go. Turns out it was pretty much spoiled, so that didn’t taste so good.

I’m thinking the safest course of action for me today is to just hide somewhere and ride it out.

[tags]bad day[/tags]

Queasy

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Well, we’re an unhealthy bunch here at the Dickinson ranch. I felt a little wonky all day; around 3:30 I felt fully wonky and left work, came home and laid on the couch until Nellie arrived. We had a summerlicious dinner tonight with some friends and I didn’t want to miss it, but didn’t really feel up to eating. I was actually a little dizzy until we got to the restaurant (Goldfish) and I had some bread and water. Now that I’ve eaten (it was pretty good, but not great) I feel better, but still just a little off. Nellie, on the other hand, started feeling nauseous toward the end of dinner and got progressively worse. I’ll just be happy if we can make it through the day sans vomit.

.:.

A phrase I never thought I’d type: Mogwai will be on the Miami Vice soundtrack.

.:.

More than 200 dead in Lebanon now, including several Canadians. The Guardian seems surprised that western powers haven’t intervened, but they shouldn’t be. The US has always back Israel very heavily; they won’t move to stop any Israeli attacks (within reason), and no other western or european country will do anything unless America makes a move first. Or perhaps what seemed in the Guardian like surprise was just veiled criticism?

I just bought a copy of Munich yesterday and began watching it today. I wonder if Ehud Olmert struggled with the moral justification of his reciprocal response as much as Golda Meir struggled with hers? I’m amazed anyone runs for political office in the middle east, knowing that you could — and probably will — have to make decisions like that.
[tags]goldfish, mogwai, miami vice, lebanon, canadians, israel, ehud olmert, golda meir[/tags]

"You haven't tried to bomb anybody and you currently smell okay to me."

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Another hot day, another bout of movies while we stayed home and kept our cool. I suspect today could be similar; high of 36 degrees (!); with the humidity it’ll probably feel like the mid-40s. Bleh.

Pretty Persuasion (imdb | rotten tomatoes) had all kinds of potential, but mostly just stayed bland for 100 minutes. There was the occasional biting truth or social insight, but it was muddied by my complete lack of belief in the main character. Evan Rachel Wood’s a good actress, but I just didn’t buy her character Kimberly. When I read the description of this movie I was hoping for something as good as Saved!; alas…

Broken Flowers (imdb | rotten tomatoes), on the other hand, was excellent. I like Jim Jarmusch’s films (this was more accessible than his usual work) and I love Bill Murray, so it was hard to go wrong. Murray’s interactions with his neighbour were hilarious, and his reunions — anywhere from mildly awkward to downright painful — with his exes were classic little character sketches. Highly recommended.

[tags]pretty persuasion, broken flowers[/tags]

The best music of the year (so far)

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In no particular order:

  • amy millan . honey from the tombs
  • asobi seksu . citrus
  • band of horses . everything all the time
  • neko case . fox confessor brings the flood
  • regina spektor . begin to hope

Wait…shit. That was alphabetic.

And, to a leser extent:

  • cat power . the greatest
  • jolie holland . springtime can kill you
  • mogwai . mr. beast
  • raising the fawn . the maginot line
  • the yeah yeah yeahs . show your bones

[tags]amy millan, asobi seksu, band of horses, neko case, regina spektor, cat power, jolie holland, mogwai, raising the fawn, yeah yeah yeahs[/tags]

"Hair is dead"

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I love relaxing Friday nights…just Nellie & I, some delivery and some movies. It’s too hot to do much else this weekend.

Proof (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was a little better than I expected. The previews made it look like little more than standard family drama, but it got a little deeper than that. It was obvious that the movie was adapted from a play — too obvious, actually, since the dialogue felt stilted at times. It started well and picked up steam through the middle, but just lost it in the final third. Still, pretty decent performances, especially by Gwyneth Palthrow, who I don’t normally like.

Wolf Creek (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was crap. I was hoping for something better than Hostel, but it was never tense, or scary, or even overly bloody (except for one or two unpleasant parts)…just shlocky. It’s too bad, the first half of the movie did a decent job of setting everything up, but it just went to waste. Maybe if it’d carried any of the authenticity the “based on actual events” tagline (which is a lie, by the way) tried to impart at the beginning, it would have been better.

[tags]proof, gwyneth paltrow, wolf creek[/tags]

[UPDATE] S3 IS

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If we don’t melt in the heat, I think we may go buy this camera tomorrow. Our old 3.2 megapixel just isn’t gonna do our upcoming Rockies trip justice.

[UPDATE] It’s been boughten. Nellie now plans to spend the day testing it out.

[thanks to c|net for the picture]

[tags]canon s3 is, digital camera, rockies[/tags]