Last night was No. 17 (imdb | rotten tomatoes | hot docs), the recorded account of a film crew who tries to discover the identity of an anonymous victim of a bus bombing in Israel. It played out like a real-life episode of Law & Order or CSI, but with a much more jarring backdrop: over the course of the movie’s filming, several other bombings occur. Alongside the tremendous tension of the hunt for victim No. 17, there’s a palpable sense of anxiety that I, being raised in peaceful, boring Nova Scotia, simply can’t appreciate or even understand.

But that’s reality. And for 76 minutes, that’s what we felt.

they’re a few years old, but they still get the job done.

beautiful

1. sigur ros – svefn-g-englar
2. varnaline – gulf of mexico
3. cranberries – empty
4. natalie merchant – san andreas fault
5. jude – i know
6. pink floyd – wish you were here
7. grapes of wrath – all the things i wasn’t
8. matthew good band – suburbia
9. smashing pumpkins – soma
10. jeff buckley – hallelujah
11. led zeppelin – what is and what should never be
12. lamb – gabriel
13. mogwai – helicon 1
14. chantal kreviazuk – wayne
15. grant lee buffalo – last days of tecumseh
16. jane’s addiction – summertime rolls

bitter

1. black rebel motorcycle club – love burns
2. sleater-kinney – heart factory
3. bare jr. – you blew me off
4. sebadoh – not too amused
5. john lee hooker – serves you right to suffer
6. juliana hatfield – swan song
7. husker du – hardly getting over it
8. kitty – brackish
9. staind – it’s been a while
10. beth orton – she cries your name
11. stevie ray vaughan – cold shot
12. nine inch nails – gave up
13. fiona apple – fast as you can
14. folk implosion – someone you love
15. ben folds five – song for the dumped
16. massive attack – better things
17. ani difranco – untouchable face
18. nirvana – lounge act
19. yo la tengo – i was the fool beside you for too long

dark

1. ben folds five – selfless cold and composes
2. sara craig – liar
3. bob mould – sacrifice; let there be peace
4. sleater-kinney – turn it on
5. soundgarden – heads down
6. love and rockets – haunted when the minutes drag
7. radiohead – how to disappear completely
8. ben harper – pleasure and pain
9. matthew good band – fearless
10. smashing pumpkins – drown
11. nine inch nails – in a warm place
12. vast – free
13. lo fidelity allstars – battle flag (long mix)
14. moby – my weakness

happy

1. pink floyd – pigs on the wing i
2. gomez – hangover
3. gandharvas – the first day of spring
4. dire straits – on every street
5. richard ashcroft – money to burn
6. bad religion – stranger than fiction
7. led zeppelin – black country woman
8. chemical brothers – the sunshine underground
9. dandy warhols – big indian
10. beta band – dry the rain
11. coldplay – yellow
12. pearl jam – aye davanita
13. matthew sweet – girlfriend
14. varnaline – underneath the mountain
15. verve – bittersweet symphony
16. weakerthans – aside
17. wheatus – teenage dirtbag
18. blind melon – drive
19. pink floyd – pigs on the wing ii

nasty

1. matthew good band – alabama motel room
2. stone temple pilots – sex type thing
3. johnny cash – delia’s gone
4. filter – hey man nice shot
5. fun lovin’ criminals – southside
6. juliana hatfield – dame with a rod
7. kingston trio – tom dooley
8. pj harvey – down by the water
9. porno for pyros – packin’ .25
10. rage against the machine – bullet in the head
11. jane’s addiction – ted, just admit it
12. dead kennedys – i fought the law
13. stevie ray vaughan – boot hill
14. soundgarden – full on kevin’s mom
15. tricky – black steel
16. jesus and mary chain – reverence
17. tool – jerk off
18. nine inch nails – big man with a gun

pissed

1. soundgarden – ty cobb
2. nine inch nails – last
3. tool – hooker with a penis
4. gomez – 78 stone wobble
5. skunk anasie – selling jesus
6. bad religion – better off dead
7. marilyn manson – the fight song
8. rage against the machine – bulls on parade
9. reef – yer old
10. temple of the dog – wooden jesus
11. limp bizkit – break stuff
12. cracker – i hate my generation
13. mark lanegan – borracho
14. garbage – stupid girl
15. social distortion – i was wrong
16. pj harvey – 50 ft queenie
17. toadies – possum kingdom
18. hole – violet
19. radiohead – packd like sardines in a tin can
20. bob mould – whichever way the wind blows

scared

1. roger waters – the ballad of bill hubbard
2. mogwai – like herod
3. massive attack – angel
4. tea party – babylon
5. alice in chains – angry chair
6. atlanta symphony orchestra – carmina burana
7. tool – prison sex
8. nine inch nails – pilgrimage
9. bob mould – hanging tree
10. black sabbath – n.i.b.
11. rush – witch hunt
12. monster magnet – goliath and the vampires
13. lo fidelity allstars – battle flag (pigeonhed mix)
14. and you will know us by the trail of dead – a perfect teenhood

up

1. dandy warhols – be-in
2. crystal method – cherry twist
3. tricky woo – fly the orient
4. pluto – paste
5. house of pain – jump around
6. change of heart – contraddiction(s)
7. sugar – and you tell me (tv mix)
8. ashley macisaac – the devil in the kitchen
9. chemical brothers – hey boy hey girl
10. harvey danger – flagpole sitta
11. live – the dam at otter creek
12. pj harvey – kamikaze
13. sleater-kinney – god is a number
14. rage against the machine – killing in the name
15. underworld – cowgirl (bedrock mix)
16. soundgarden – superunknown
17. screaming trees – julie paradise

We braved the cold & rain today to see Super Size Me (official site | rotten tomatoes | eye weekly cover story), the first of five documentaries we’re seeing as part of this year’s Hot Docs festival. The house was packed — Hot Docs is getting more and more popular, and this film has been getting big press ever since it won at Sundance — and filmmaker Morgan Spurlock showed up to much applause. The movie was funny, disturbing, at times gross (stomach surgery, vomiting, a rectal exam, many fat asses in sweatpants, etc.) and certainly interesting. The premise, if you haven’t read those websites I linked to, is that Spurlock, dubious about McDonald’s claims that their meals are perfectly healthy, eats nothing but McD’s for 30 days…morning, noon, night. Soon he’s 25 pounds heavier, lethargic, in danger of liver failure, and (according to his girlfriend) shite in bed. Ba ba ba ba baaa.

If you’ve read the latest issue of Esquire, you’ll know Chuck Klosterman doubts that Spurlock could get so sick so fast. I don’t think he does; he vomits very early on, but I think it’s less to do with the quality of the food than with the sheer volume of what he’s trying to force down. By day nine, it’s the nasty-ass content of the food that’s getting to him and he goes downhill fast. I do agree with Klosterman that ultimately it’s our own fault that we gorge on this shit every day, but I think McDonald’s should be prevented from ever suggesting that their food is healthy.

I have no doubt that Spurlock was biased, but all filmmakers are. To his credit, he got three different doctors and a health clinic to test the effects on his body, rather than just step on a scale and infer. And, as he said during Q&A after the movie, he didn’t have to say much. The results spoke for themselves.

Super Size Me opens in Toronto & Vancouver May 7th.

Scraps 56

1. Muffs – Red Eyed Troll
2. Bardo Pond – Every Man
3. Cooper Temple Clause – A.I.M.
4. Cyann & Ben – Buick to the Moon
5. Darkness – Black Shuck
6. Guided By Voices – My Kind Of Soldier
7. Holly Golightly – Truly She Is None Other – Walk A Mile
8. Martin Tielli – Ship of Fire
9. Modest Mouse – Alone Down There
10. Neil Young – Cinnamon Girl
11. Pretty Girls Make Graves – Chemical, Chemical
12. Seekonk – Tiny Lustre
13. Snapcase – A Synthesis Of Classic Forms
14. SPRCSS – Spring Garden Drive-By
15. Starsailor – Music Was Saved
16. Straylight Run – Existentialism On Prom Night
17. Slint – Good Morning Captain

Scraps 57

1. White Stripes – St Ides Of March
2. Cooper Temple Clause – The Same Mistakes
3. Cyann & Ben – I Can’t Pretend Anymore
4. Denali – Hold Your Breath
5. Mogwai – Now You’re Taken
6. Guided By Voices – The Best Of Jill Hives
7. Hawksley Workman – Bank Robber
8. Johnny Cash – I See A Darkness
9. Holly Golightly – Without You Here
10. Martin Tielli – Waterstriders
11. Jolie Holland – All the Morning Birds
12. Bardo Pond – Test
13. Outkast – Hey Ya
14. REM – Bad Day
15. Sinead O’Connor – Love Is Ours
16. Starsailor – Silence Is Easy
17. Modest Mouse – Dark Center of the Universe

Scraps 58

1. Jet – Are You Gonna Be My Girl
2. Belle & Sebastian – Step Into My Office Baby
3. Blanche – Superstition
4. Blue Rodeo – What Am I Doing Here
5. Clearlake – Winterlight
6. Courtney Love – Mono
7. Cyndi Lauper & The Minus 5 – Midnight Radio
8. Deerhoof – Blue Cash
9. Diverse – Certified
10. Elbow – Teardrop
11. Frank Black – Sugar Daddy
12. Guided By Voices – A Salty Salute
13. M83 – Run Into Flowers
14. Oceansize – Women Who Love Men Who Love Drugs
15. Offspring – Hit That
16. Oneida – $50 Tea
17. Outrageous Cherry – Young And Miserable
18. Polyphonic Spree – Wig In A Box
19. Pearl Jam – Wash

Scraps 59

1. Danger Mouse – 99 Problems
2. Belle & Sebastian – If She Wants Me
3. Broken Social Scene – Cause =’s Time
4. Charlemagne – August Evenings
5. Descendents – Cool To Be You
6. Fischerspooner vs Billy Squier – Everybody Wants You To Emerge
7. Kingdom Flying Club – My Astrologer
8. Laurie Styvers – Beat The Reaper
9. Mountain Goats – Home Again Garden Grove
10. Neil Finn – She Will Have Her Way
11. Oneida – Treasure Plane
12. Outrageous Cherry – Girl You Have Magic Inside You
13. Pearl Jam – All Night
14. Raising the Fawn – Gwendolyn
15. Shearwater – Whipping Boy
16. Shins – Girl On The Wing
17. Spoon – Tear Me Down
18. Strokes – You Talk Way Too Much
19. Trews – Not Ready To Go
20. White Stripes – Red Death At 614
21. Angels Of Light – Palisades

I can’t tell if Sleater-Kinney’s “Turn It On” is the greatest love song ever written, or the biggest fuck-you song ever written.

Either way, it’s one of the best songs I’ve ever heard. If I had to pick one band to be the saviour for all of rock and roll, the colonel leading the troops up the hill to battle, the christ on the way to Golgotha, the Britney to all Christinas and Jessicas…SK might be it.

From Now Magazine: Disc biz’s big lie. Hardly an unbiased look — Now is a free paper that is heavily read by the indie, the left and the student in Toronto — but they’re hardly alone in saying it.

“The industry has been opposing new technology since the day of the player piano. Every new technology, from the phonograph to the radio and the tape recorder, is the end of the world, and they oppose it, litigate against it and try to get legislation against it. Eventually, they will get it and realize there’s money to made here, and when they finally do wrap their minds around it and stop being Luddites, they’ll probably get quite rich.”

“We Took Back The Plague” by the Fiery Furnaces.

From Dino, by way of my brother.

Songs To Wear Pants To

Is it me, or does the site (and concept) seem very much like exploding dog? Oh…never mind. He talk about it here.

If the RIAA/CRIA/etc. claim to be looking after the interests of their artists when trying to stop music downloading (which no one actually believes, of course), but you have hundreds of artists who have no problem with fans downloading the music, why not just let the artists sign a waiver that says “Sure, fans can download my music for free!”?

Then the industry would be exposed as greedy little liars with their pants on fire, and we can all get back to enjoying the music rather than debate copyright law…

I got a nice surprise in the mail today: Amazon actually delivered something on the release date. With a little more work they can match Future Shop, who often ships new release items on Saturday so that they arrive Monday, the day before they hit the streets.

Season 2 of The Office (which I’ve already seen, but have been desperate to watch again as the episodes aren’t coming out fast enough on BBC Canada), Bows And Arrows by The Walkmen and Ted Leo/Pharmacists‘ Hearts Of Oak.