Blancheflower

On Videogamers, Casual and Otherwise

2009-12-15T12:41:00.010-07:00

I've played video games ever since I was old enough to know that a Goomba wasn't just a terrible Italian stereotype, but while I've always maintained a foot in the door of the hobby, it's only been since attending PAX with one of my oldest friends this past September (an experience I documented here) that I've become a more avid member of the video gamer community again. With this reentry, one thing I'm keenly aware of is the odd divide there seems to be in the video game community between the ideas of the "casual" gamer and the "hardcore" gamer. I'm no stranger to these kinds of inane divisions, being a veteran of the Genesis/SNES and PC/Mac arguments from before adolescence, but one thing that I'm still surprised by is how much this can get reiterated and worsened by the video game media.

The brunt of this kind of division is usually borne by Nintendo. Case in point: Wired magazine's Game Life blog. In today's post about the best Wii games of the year, just in time for Christmas, editor Chris Kohler parrots the claim of message board trolls everywhere by claiming that Nintendo has lost its way by abandoning the hardcore gamer and focusing on the casual side of the hobby. There's no actual explanation of this, it's just stated as a universal fact. In the actual list of the year's top games for the console, three out of the five include jabs at Nintendo by mentioning low sales, delays, or even using the term "not as good" when describing the number one pick; each one of these blurbs is by Kohler. Contributor Gus Mastrapa is at least able to stick to describing why a game is good enough to be on the list.

This isn't the first time Kohler has done something like this. Hell, it's not even the first time this week: in yesterday's post about Nintendo's first quarter prospects for 2010, he placed everything in the context of "flagging Wii sales", ignoring the fact that last Thursday he posted that in November the Wii outsold its console competitors by over 50% and placed 4 games in the month's Top 10 for sales. When I asked Kohler about this, he explained that Wii sales are down from this time last year, but made no mention of his earlier note, alongside sales data, that the whole industry is down 7.6% last year. So Nintendo isn't doing as well as last year, but it's still outselling its competitors, who are also selling less. So why does Nintendo take the blame?

This can all be easily viewed through the frame of Kohler's claim today that Nintendo's fault is that it has abandoned "hardcore" gamers (perhaps ones like himself). Whether Nintendo is connecting with a wide audience seems to be irrelevant. One of the great Myths Of The Gamer is that he (and yes, it's a he) is isolated, socially inept, addicted, and overweight. Above all else, he's an outsider. From this direction, I'd think that Nintendo's emphasis with the Wii on the social aspect of gaming, low price of entry, and engaging a new audience with a new style of play should be considered a good thing, not a stab in the back to "hardcore" people like Kohler. From my experience, it's much easier to start up a conversation about the Wii than my Playstation 3, and a lot more of my friends own that instead of the XBox 360 or the Playstation 3. This last weekend I was on a wild goose chase looking for a copy of a Nintendo game, New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Stores had stacks of copies of the newest games for the other two consoles, but that wasn't what was in demand: by Sunday evening, the local Best Buy was selling out of the 125 copies of the game it got that very morning. This isn't new, either. Back in 2007 when the Playstation 3 and Wii had release dates a few days apart, it was the former that got the bulk of media attention, falsely treating the situation with breathless enthusiasm (Penny Arcade had an effective response here) even as the Wii remained difficult to find in stores a year later and well into 2008. Feel free to call me on it if you think I'm wrong, but that kind of wide audience could be the thing that helps change the gamer stereotype.

But Sony doesn't fare too well with Game Life either. The site routinely reports on T-shirts your XBox Live avatar can wear and Twitter and Facebook on the XBox, but posted no review of the PS3's biggest game of the year, Uncharted 2. If the XBox 360 is outsold by the Wii, well, the news is that at least it outsold the PS3. Ha! Take that, Sony! If a game has a multi-platform release, they'll review the XBox 360 version. I can't actually tell if any of the site's writers actually own a PS3. "Hardcore" might as well be "XBox" when they talk about it.

After all this, I can't understand why sites like Game Life place such misguided, often inaccurate importance on the "hardcore" gamer. Sales suggest they're not the majority, and I can't help but feel this is the problem for people like Kohler: the club's not exclusive anymore, even as it becomes less stigmatizing to be a part of it. Why is it worse to be a "casual" gamer? I guess I'm just a big tent gamer: the more the merrier. More people playing just means more people to play with, and that's more than good enough for me.

On the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize

2009-10-09T12:30:00.005-06:00

This morning, US President Barack Obama was announced as the winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, following a unanimous vote by the Nobel committee. He is only the third sitting president in history with the honour, after Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland announced that President Obama was being given the award "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons."

Naturally, this announcement is international news, and quite understandably, it has been followed by intense debate over whether the President deserves the award. Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri remarked, "Obama has a long way to go still and lots of work to do before he can deserve a reward. Obama only made promises and did not contribute any substance to world peace." This is likely not a very surprising announcement.

However, what has surprised me the most in many ways is the response from many within the United States itself. Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele has said:

The real question Americans are asking is, "What has President Obama actually accomplished?" It is unfortunate that the president’s star power has outshined tireless advocates who have made real achievements working towards peace and human rights. One thing is certain -- President Obama won’t be receiving any awards from Americans for job creation, fiscal responsibility, or backing up rhetoric with concrete action.

To me, this seems like an unnecessary interjection of partisan politics. As a recognition of international peace efforts, a Nobel Peace Prize will almost never be awarded for job creation or fiscal responsibility. I will not insult Mr. Steele's intelligence, and instead assume that he knows this. Steele's statement, then, reads as a deliberate attempt to avoid actual contribution to the discussion on foreign policy. It amounts to a person winning an Olympic medal for the 100m dash and being criticized for not playing tennis. It also seems to be evidence of a conscious attempt to bias the discussion of fiscal responsibility in the first place - "good" responsibility depends largely on one's ideological approach to the term - 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics Laureate Paul Krugman, Keynesian economics, and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal all suggest that large scale government spending during an economic recession is a good way to stimulate growth. This is all ignoring, of course, the fact that TARP, the initial American stimulus plan, as well as the ballooning of the federal debt, are attributable to the previous president, Republican George W. Bush. See? Needless politics.

Statements about "concrete results" also fail to take into consideration one very important reality: unlike the other Nobel Prizes, the Nobel Peace Prize is not awarded simply on the basis of tangible accomplishments. Instead, it is often awarded as a grand gesture, a statement on current or recent events. In 1989, in the wake of the Tienanmen Square massacre, the Dalai Lama was awarded the Peace Prize, despite not actually achieving his goals. Instead, it was a rebuke of Tiananmen Square and, in the words of the Committee, "He has instead advocated peaceful solutions based upon tolerance and mutual respect in order to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of his people." Here, it was the advocacy and intent that mattered.

Taken in this light, and coming so quickly after President Obama's election, it's hard not to see the awarding of the prize as a statement on the results of the election and the previous president. In the announcement, Jagland specifically states that the award recognizes the importance President Obama places on multilateral diplomacy and the USA "now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting." All that seems to be missing is the actual indictment of President Bush.

I think this is what worries Mr. Steele and the RNC: the world is recognizing the shift in America's foreign policy approach, which can be easily tied to the change in governance from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party. It's as much of an indictment of the Republican Party's emphasis on unilateral action as it is a recognition of President Obama's emphasis on the opposite. This likely hurts a great deal.

For the record, I agree that the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama is premature, and I would very much like to have been able to see the direction of his presidency over more time before making such an important statement as the Nobel Peace Prize. However, even President Obama himself agrees that the award is, at best, premature, and that he is currently undeserving of the award. In a public statement, he has thus resolved to view the award "as a call to action — a call for all nations to confront the challenges of the 21st century", in addition stating that it is not an award for him, but instead that it should be "shared by everyone who strives for justice and dignity." He will be donating his $1.5 million prize to charity.

In this spirit, I encourage my fellow critics of the awarding of the prize to President Obama to take his statement seriously. If we see it as our own call to action, to make our own neighborhoods, cities and nations better places, then perhaps the awarding of the Prize will not have been entirely misdirected. This is the heart of modern democracy, after all: the perfect desire to better our imperfect world.

I guess chocolate costs more

2009-01-28T12:46:00.006-07:00

It has begun; Valentine's Day is encroaching on the office. A basket of those chalky, horrible candy hearts with words written on them now sits on the table in the staff room. These aren't the ones from my childhood, however. As disgusting and corny as they were, at least they made sense. I'm seeing a few issues with the messages on the new ones. Let's take a look:

BEEP ME - This is a sexual harassment suit waiting to happen. Were these run by Human Resources?

BE TRUE - Not something you should probably be saying via candy heart. If you have to remind somebody of this at all, there are larger issues that need attending to.

NO WAY - That's a little harsh for candy, isn't it?

HIGH 5 - Who? Why? On Valentine's Day?

TRUE ONE - I'm confused, wasn't this just in question?

U-R SURE - I am? Of what?

E-MAIL - Stapler! Telephone! Context! Is there lead paint on the walls?

Election night

2008-10-14T20:46:00.004-06:00

This selection from Alan Moore's foreword to V For Vendetta has always struck a chord with me, but tonight it's ringing in my ears. It's getting louder and louder, and I just want it to go away.

It's 1988 now. Margaret Thatcher is entering her third term of office and talking confidently of an unbroken Conservative leadership well into the next century. My youngest daughter is seven and the tabloid press are circulating the idea of concentration camps for persons with AIDS. The new riot police wear black visors, as do their horses, and their vans have rotating video cameras mounted on top. The government has expressed a desire to eradicate homosexuality, even as an abstract concept, and one can only speculate as to which minority will be the next legislated against. I'm thinking of taking my family and getting out of this country soon, sometime over the next couple of years. It's cold and it's mean spirited and I don't like it here anymore.

Goodnight Alberta.

On Multiple Uses

2008-09-16T23:16:00.002-06:00

Sarah: i don't care what you say, i LIKE how german sounds
Me: i suppose it's alright, if you're either trying to scare little children or thinking of starting a death metal band
Sarah: oh shut up
Me: or thinking of producing fetish porno for the internet
Sarah: oh fuck you
Me: or trying to play a convincing Hitler in a made for tv movie on CBS
Sarah: ...
Me: needless to say, i've been running low on blog ideas recently

In my defense it shows I am tolerant

2008-08-08T13:13:00.003-06:00

This afternoon my sister and I had a conversation about her upcoming trip to the West Coast, where she and her friend will be staying in the lovely Fairmont Hotel. I had some ideas about what might happen.

In Excess

2008-07-03T13:23:00.002-06:00

Overheard on the LRT on Canada Day:

Boy wearing a Pride shirt: So, did you hear that Rachel isn't a lesbian anymore?
Girl 1: That sucks!
Girl 2: Yeah, she was such a hot lesbian!
Girl 1: And she was so hardcore!
Boy: I mean, I can imagine being a little bi-curious, but to go all the way?

Functions

2008-05-08T01:41:00.003-06:00

Esquire has compiled a list of The 75 Skills Every Man Should Master. Let's go through it:

1. Give advice that matters in one sentence.
3. Take a photo.
5. Name a book that matters.
6. Know at least one musical group as well as is possible.
7. Cook meat somewhere other than the grill.
9. Write a letter.
11. Swim three different strokes
12. Show respect without being a suck-up.
15. Calculate square footage.
17. Make one drink, in large batches, very well. (Thank you, iced tea classic!)
21. Argue with a European without getting xenophobic or insulting soccer.
23. Be loyal.
26. Cast a fishing rod without shrieking or sighing or otherwise admitting defeat.
30. Feign interest.
31. Make a bed.
35. ~~Jump-start a car (without any drama).~~ Change a flat tire (safely). Change the oil (once).
40. Speak to an eight-year-old so he will hear.
44. Ask for help.
48. Remove a stain.
49. Say no.
50. Fry an egg sunny-side up.
51. Build a campfire. (God knows how I remember, but I do.)
56. Create a play-list in which ten seemingly random songs provide a secret message to one person.
57. Explain what a light-year is.
59. Write a thank-you note.
60. Be brand loyal to at least one product.
61. Cook bacon.
62. Hold a baby.
64. Know that Christopher Columbus was a son of a bitch.
70. Shake hands.
73. Caress a woman's neck. (Don't ruin this one for me.)

Apparently as far as the kitchen goes, a man only has to know how to cook meat. That enough is reason to pay little attention to the rest, though to be honest I thought it was pretty cool learning how to tell North using just your watch and the sun.

My possessions are transient

2008-04-23T23:55:00.004-06:00

Me: how is studying going?
Kate: well I came close to nirvana but remembered I had laundry to do which instantly made me lose concentration, thus losing my only chance at enlightenment in this lifetime
Kate: c'est la vie
Me: I really really really hope your final is just one question:
Me: "Which Buddha is your favourite?"
Kate: Ooooo I hope so!
Me: i would also accept: "if you could be any buddha, which would it be and why?"
Kate: I definitely will have to go with Sakyamuni...he does have a lot going on
Me: since you STOLE my nirvana joke
Kate: gasp, that doesn't sound like me at all
Me: we've been hypothetical future roommates for 12 hours and you're ALREADY stealing my shit
Kate: well i try to do it when your back is turned but I have sticky fingers

What an aneurism feels like

2008-03-31T22:09:00.002-06:00

Dark Roasted Blend: Disturbing Wiring, Part 4

Are you the kind of person who bundles their electronics cables neatly so that there's only one organized path from your desk to the power bar? You probably don't want to look at this. I already have enough troubles with crumbs, germs and counting things, but I was unprepared for what I experienced when I clicked. My head started swimming, my breath got shallow. The floor opened up for a second and all I saw was a gaping chasm of fiery, tangled briar.

Try their breakfast

2008-03-21T20:30:00.002-06:00

Things I went to IKEA to purchase:
-1 FADO blown glass globe table lamp

Things I purchased at IKEA:
-1 blue RITVA knitted throw
-1 pair of green ALLEBY slippers, slightly too small but only $3.99 so who cares?
-1 STRILA apple corer
-1 IDEALISK tea infuser
-42 TINDRA pear-scented tea lights

For a good time call

2008-03-14T21:10:00.003-06:00

It looks like I ~~might be~~ am attending the Sasquatch Music Festival in Central Washington with The Lady and some of her friends. The original plan was Coachella, but this is closer. And cheaper. And not in the desert. I cannot stress this last part enough. If you want to take a pleasant outing and ruin it, try this at home: Step 1 - Invite me. Step 2 - Leave me for 3 days in 30-plus degree weather. Step 3 - Dehydrate me.

Fun fact: we will no longer be friends.

I'm very excited to be going on this trip. I don't take a lot of time off and I take even fewer actual vacations. I haven't left the country since I was 11 years old. I'll have graduated. In short, I think I've earned this.

But there's one problem: with this many good acts, at whom will I throw my panties? That, readers, is up to you. Look at the lineup and post your top 3 in the comments. Before Sasquatch I'll post the winner and runners up.

My tentative votes:

1. Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
2. The National
3. Kathleen Edwards

Multitasking

2008-02-19T22:19:00.005-07:00

A conversation with my sister:

Me: Btw, yesterday in the shower I solved the whole "elected senate" issue.

Sarah: ... I DON'T THINK I WANT TO KNOW

Me: Make appointments require ratification by the House. It introduces accountability (and an investigative process to root out the riffraff) but doesn't require actual elections, which would be huge disasters since, well, nobody actually cares about the senate candidates. People are pissed that the process is unaccountable, not that it's not an election. After all, look at the disastrously low amount of people that voted for the nonbinding senate election in the last election.

Sarah: True. and look at how few people vote in elections at ALL.

Me: Exactly. Making this kind of stuff accountable (I would also suggest it be done for supreme court judges) but not elected defuses the entire issue immediately. You have to admit, this is actually a pretty good idea.

Sarah: Oddly enough, it is. Usually dudes do other things than thinking this stuff up when they're in the shower.

Me: I did this first.

Sarah: *sigh*

About time

2008-02-04T14:06:00.001-07:00

It wouldn't be February (or March, that one time) if I didn't publish my list of my favourite albums of the previous year. I've actually had it prepared since the beginning of January, but what can I say? I'm a slave to tradition. Hell, last year I didn't even post one, I just alluded to it. That's dedication.

1. The National - Boxer
2. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
3. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
4. Radiohead - In Rainbows
5. St. Vincent - Marry Me
6. Basia Bulat - Oh, My Darling
7. Low - Drums and Guns
8. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
9. Dinosaur Jr. - Beyond
10. Feist - The Reminder

Last year was a great year for new music; I discovered new artists (Basia Bulat, St. Vincent, Rebekah Higgs, Menomena) and fell into deeper appreciation of ones I already knew. Ultimately, the year had to go to The National, who topped a phenomenal breakout album (2005's Alligator) with an even better one, Boxer. I hate to call it a grower, as so many have, because it suggests that you won't like it at first. It's probably more accurate to say that my opinion of it shifted; songs that I moderately enjoyed when I first listened to them became my favourites by the end of the year. It's rare for me that an album gives this many new impressions so long after its release. I hope that if you give it a chance, you have a similar experience. This is an album that I'll be returning to for years.

A taste

2007-12-17T00:20:00.001-07:00

The full trailer for The Dark Knight just arrived.

I'll have more posts in two days once exams are finished, but until then, just rest assured that you're not the only one who just soiled themself. I am so terribly, terribly excited.

It is not a very good job

2007-11-30T23:31:00.000-07:00

Around a year ago I read that newspapers often keep backlogs of obituaries for celebrities, periodically updating them. This way, when said person eventually passes, they can make a last-minute update and get it out on the next news day. It's usually pretty green writers that get these assignments. I figure, that's got to be a pretty boring, surreal job. But wouldn't it make a good screenplay? Some kid - well, maybe he's not a kid. Maybe he's 30 - gets this gig, starts wasting away in it. To keep sane, he starts writing his own, funny, semi-fictional accounts of these people's lives. One gets printed; I don't know how, maybe a comical misnaming of a file. Anyway, shit ensues. But some people like it. There end up being more. He's getting popular, but the SAG aren't really fans. Heartwarming climax. Etcetera.

Hm. Sounds kind of like Be Kind Rewind. I bet that's a good movie.

Slowly going

2007-11-30T15:39:00.000-07:00

Am I losing it? A couple of days ago, while searching for some research material for a paper partially about some of Gogol's short stories, I found a couple of books not at the main Humanities and Social Sciences library. Instead, it said they were located at the Book and Record Depository, almost on the other side of the city. When I got there? The online records say they're back at the main library, in the Special Collections. Which is closed on the weekend. I would have sworn I read the record correctly. Now? A few other doubts.

2007-11-29T23:27:00.000-07:00

Deadlines have killed me. Even the easy ones. I've fallen asleep during things like The West Wing, which just isn't done. Everything's moving slower, everything's falling behind. I need to catch up. I need to blink - once, twice. Put a little something in my lemonade, take it with me.

Half awake.

Right now, I just want to dream of soft skin, butterflies and bluebirds. I'd be okay with that.

Second degree plea

2007-11-28T19:24:00.000-07:00

Highlight of my day: Dooce killing the BYU Student Honor Association server. The link in question, the Modesty & Grooming Standards posters, are worth a gander in their own right. It'll just take a while. The moral of its story? You're probably going to Hell.

If you want a real post, write my papers for me

2007-11-27T23:50:00.000-07:00

PS: Do not actually do this; the university frowns upon plagiarism and after being recited the university's official code on the matter 34 separate times, I don't exactly have plausible deniability. I swear, Mister Dean, that page was curiously missing from every single course syllabus. I know, right? You should check into that. Send a memo to the faculty. I can see you've got this taken care of, I'll let myself out

But since that's not actually going to happen, I actually have to write a research article about a pretend research-study; a bad pretend research study. What do you receive, dear reader, as payment? Scraps of lyric ideas that came to me this evening, as it hit me that things are starting to look up after all.

Zero to

Jesus man another hill
And the sense of something breaking

Butcher, baker, candlestick maker
A cereal prize
It's gonna be a good one

I can feel it
Flax in my fingers
Straws in the car for weeks

Zero to more
New rides, fast times
Another hill, a knowing wink

The last tercet is feeling the most like the chorus right now, but I might work in the first couplet as a bridge, or at least a recurring mantra of sorts. There have been some drum and tremolo loops in my head recently, maybe I've got a Grant/Barrymore thing going on here. Now watch me forget about this forever.

Today in Humility

2007-11-26T15:22:00.000-07:00

Pitchfork: Once you reach a certain degree of visibility, people assume that things must be more interesting than they actually are. "He put 'Broken Social Scene' on the album title to sell records, but this is just Kevin Drew's big-ego solo project"

KD: But then you hear the record, and does it sound like that?

Pitchfork: It sounds like a Broken Social Scene record.

KD: A ha! Well, then, maybe rather than calling it Broken Social Scene and doing my big ego solo project where I totally take the record away from everybody, I thought I'd make this album and put it under "Broken social scene presents" because we have a lot of stuff in the wings that we don't necessarily want to put it out as Broken Social Scene. We didn't want to cash in on all the work that all of us did together. But because everyone was on the record, it seemed like the right thing to do. It is a huge, fast world and we wanted to make sure that people knew what it was. Everyone else has a band, but Justin, Brendan and I didn't. We sort of wanted to stay in the realm of what Broken Social Scene was.
-From Pitchfork's interview with Kevin Drew

I'm going to just come out and say it. That asshole with the whole, "big ego solo project" thing? That was me. Even hearing the first official cut from the album Spirit If..., "TBTF," I wasn't feeling it. It didn't feel right, it felt too easy. I'll admit it, I'm a douche.

Fast forward a few months, and I've got a ticket to his concert on December 15th. What happened? This did:

Whoa. Seriously, doesn't that just give you a rush? Just watching it? I can only imagine what happens when that happens live, when you're in that room. I've tried to approximate it at jet airplane volume before I leave in the morning. You, a fly on the wall, would see a man transformed, jumping around, grinning and laughing like an idiot, scaring the dog. I get it. It's all about having fun and being that dude. I'm really excited now, I can't wait to jump around and laugh with strangers. Come join me.

Lenny Kravitz at the Grey Cup

2007-11-25T17:54:00.000-07:00

The performance is done, but it's still hard to shake a weird, surreal feeling. In a Canadian Football League championship game (peculiarly played indoors), the halftime entertainment was an American singer performing a song by a Canadian artist about rebuffing America. Unironically. Perhaps obliviously. Whichever, it seems odd that in a time when Canada is contributing more to music than it ever has, this would be the choice. There are some local bands that would have probably been just as effective choices.

Ah well. It's still a hell of a game.

Showcase summary

2007-11-23T22:49:00.001-07:00

Roberto in repose 1
Originally uploaded by Leask

The highlights:

1. People liked my poster, I didn't faint when someone asked me a question
2. The networking.
3. The wine.
4. The lovely ladies from the Centennial Centre in Ponoka. I didn't really know anybody there, but I ended up spending all my time with Jas and Clare. I could have done a lot worse. Like the crazy lady from last night's post.
5. The Great Cow Heist of 2007. Tables full of cow stress toys + Young adults + Wine = Memories.

I had a great time, but I didn't get to say goodbye to Jas and Clare before I left. I'll have to talk to Nicole to get Jas' email, so I can thank her for putting up with me and buying me dinner.

Never as tired as when I wake up

2007-11-22T23:43:00.001-07:00

Day two, done. Sessions were less interesting, but there were friendly faces, wine and smiles. Too much wine, maybe. Huh. What am I saying? At these things, I'm starting to think excessive drinking is what they mean when they schedule networking. Worth every penny.

There were some awkward moments at dinner, where a woman with nowhere else to sit joined our table, and gradually alienated us one by one. She told Claire that she may not want to get married or have kids now, but she should do it anyway because it's better than being 50 and alone. I thought Clare might explode. She argued with us about everything. Most were smiling through their teeth, getting by on protracted silences. Should I have told her that American Thanksgiving isn't real Thanksgiving? Probably not. I might as well have told her that I was a gay atheist.

Oh well. Smiles and wine, kids. Smiles and wine.

I have a really good reason this time

2007-11-22T00:21:00.000-07:00

I'm done done done. The paper is completed, I just need to make one last editing sweep in the morning and then I can submit it.

The conference is fantastic. Margaret Trudeau was our keynote speaker, and it was everything I'd hoped for. She's got style, grace, and oh! The stories! The rest of the day was a whirl of posters, presenters and accents. My poster defense went far more easily than I'd thought, and Kierla was right: there it was, my voice. Everything I knew came flooding back and people seemed interesting.

But the best part of the day, besides Maggie -can I call her that?- was the group I was with. Another intern, Nicole, spent a year in Ponoka and brought some coworkers to class one day. Fast forward two weeks, and here they are at the conference. It's a lot less intimidating this way, having people I know around me.

Let's be honest, though. Mountain town, conference, and young, fun adults around? There was wine, there were martinis, and there was a very good reason to put off finishing my work until everyone else was contemplating nightcaps. I am but a man!

Mannn

2007-11-20T23:42:00.000-07:00

Here I am in Banff. The drive was pleasant, dinner was fine, but I'm still freaking out. After tomorrow, the pressure is done because both a presentation and a paper will be out of the way. I'm spent, I've got nothing for you. All I know is that it's pretty surreal to look in the conference's program and see my name right above something I've written.

Whoa. I'm lightheaded. It's all tingly. I could get used to this.

Plans within plans

2007-11-19T22:42:00.000-07:00

Just over 12 hours until I leave for the Mental Health Research Showcase, and I'm not sure how it's going to go. If the conference weren't precisely during the end of semester assignment extravaganza, I'd have liked to do some serious review of the literature that forms the bulk of my presentation and take a more expansive look at the test manual for one of my measures. Unfortunately, I'm still a few more pages behind on the most looming paper than where I'd hoped I'd be, so no such luck yet.

To be fair, it's not exactly an innocent circumstance, this being off schedule. Reaping, sowing, you've heard it before. Irony time: the paper is for a course on learning, but I never seem to. I'm hoping to ~~plough~~ finesse my way through one of my main points, then finish the rest tomorrow and Wednesday night after the day's sessions end.

Who knows how much good this will be tomorrow evening, though. I spent months learning the material from all angles - hell, I designed the damn study almost singlehandedly - but now I'm not so sure. Confidence, confidence, I've been told. Find your voice. Maybe I'll just pay somebody to stand there for me; nobody in Banff knows what I look like. Skiing, anyone?

Open

2007-11-18T20:02:00.000-07:00

Unless you're one of those people who doesn't watch television (stop reading now), the Writer's Guild of America strike should not come as news. I make no secret of my sympathies in the affair: I fall squarely on the side of the writers. Unfortunately, I'm hardly an expert in the area, so I would simply like to direct you towards some sources of information on the issue.

A warning: The following are all from the WGA or its members, and can hardly be considered completely unbiased. Consume critically and let your opinion fall where it may.

1. Writers for The Office talk about the strike and the WGA's requests.
2. Daily Show writer Jason Ross lays down his side of the argument, with help from John Oliver.
3. Daily Show writer Rob Kutner talks about the strike, the realities of a prolonged one and possible support from the Screen Actors Guild.
4. The WGA's video explaining the details of their argument.

Keep updated on the strike at the WGA's official site or Deadline Hollywood Daily. If you agree with the WGA, get involved at Fans4Writers or send a box of pencils to the AMPTP.

Shame, shame

2007-11-17T23:47:00.000-07:00

I found this article on a forum today, and was understandably struck by Dede's plight. Even more, I was struck by many people's reaction of cynical distrust that such a thing would exist, jumping to the immediate and highly scientific conclusion that it was a poverty-stricken third worlder tricking the west into giving him money. This was, in fact, despite others' clarifications of the facts and widespread media corroboration of the fact that this is real and yes, it really does suck just as much as it looks. That, more than the man's condition itself, is incredibly depressing.

Late > Never

2007-11-17T10:25:00.000-07:00

Towards the end of my summer research gig at the hospital, two of my coworkers got it in their heads that I need a makeover. And I do, but I'll be damned if I'm going to take seriously the suggestions of two people who watch Prison Break. All that I actually got around to doing was picking up a new pair of shoes and getting a haircut. This isn't exactly What Not To Wear proportions here.

But tonight is our staff psychiatrist's Pre-Christmas party, and I have a feeling that showing up in my standard dress might not be that impressive. To top it off, I've got a three day conference in Banff next week, and I probably shouldn't look like a hobo if I'm representing my organization and trying to interest people in my research.

I guess I'm going to the mall today.

Stopgap: Hey, I'd Watch It

2007-11-15T23:49:00.000-07:00

A pleasant surprise this week was Okkervil River's new album The Stage Names. I was very hesitant to purchase it, given how disappointed I was with their previous LP, Black Sheep Boy. I'm glad I bought it, because it's an improvement in just about every single way. When the band starts getting faster and louder, I get more and more excited. I've been dancing to the first single on the way home from the bus stop. Okay... and the tracks right after it.

This is what did it, in the end:

Another lesson to be less judgmental. I don't plan on making a habit of these.

Deal breaker

2007-11-14T23:42:00.000-07:00

Carrie Brownstein recently asked about deal breakers in music, the unforgivable line that can't be crossed. For her, it's preciousness. For me, it's rapidly becoming insincerity.

I think I'm just bored with a lot of what can be called the hipster scene, where it often seems people are into a fashion or band because it's uncool in a very cool way. There's inevitably a lot of scoffing involved, and that's just more effort than I care to muster these days. I'm gravitating farther and farther away from the prototypically insincere, the dance rock (and the preciously precious), and finding myself listening more and more to dudes and ladies who just make music because it's fun or fulfilling. Expressway to my whatever. I don't listen to Sonic much these days, as a result. Unsurprising.

Best examples of the right way? Sonic Youth and Wilco, probably. There's something pretty attractive about being middle aged and in the game nonetheless, banging away to make some pretty noise. What's yours?

The difference between letters

2007-11-13T23:52:00.000-07:00

I'm being bothered by something that shouldn't be doing it, something that's a little embarrassing. My Intro to Clinical Psych class spent the bulk of the time since the last midterm talking, in some way or another, about Antisocial Personality Disorder and especially the differentiation between primary and secondary psychopaths. Fast forward, and I'm sitting here with the second assignment, and what's the part that's tripping me? Primary v. Secondary. One dude's affable but obviously off, the other's an organic case from a pretty serious whammy on the noggin. Both with problems since childhood, so there's the ASPD. One's got a hint of the problematic childhood, the other's got little info in the area. One or the other. 1 or 2.

Can't I just scribble down that they've both got "the evil in their eyes" and call it a day? I'm pretty sure that's straight shooting professionalism, yessir.

Slightly more one-sided

2007-11-12T18:45:00.000-07:00

Me: Come here, Taffy! Come on up! There's room on the couch! Come on! Here girl!"
Taffy: ...
Me: ComeoncomeoncomeoncomeonTaffy!
Taffy: [walks away towards the dining room]
Me: I didn't say go to Mum! Why? Why? Come on girl, come on! Come here!
Taffy: [returns]
Me: Come on! Come on up! Good girl! You're my favourite puppy!
Taffy: ...
Me: Okay, don't come up. If you ever come up on the couch, it will be too soon.
Taffy: ...
Me: What gives? The regular psychology doesn't work on you and neither does the reverse kind? What kind of evil mastermind are you?
Taffy: ...

I couldn't remember anything else specifically

2007-11-11T19:42:00.000-07:00

A brief section of conversation today:

Brendon: You know, [mutual acquaintance] is talking about how he's going to do the fitness training the guys in 300 used.
Me: Killing Persians?

If they knew they would probably pay me less

2007-11-10T13:49:00.000-07:00

It never fails: No matter which shift I am working, no matter how well prepared I try to be, no matter how early I start getting ready, there is a point 10 minutes before I have to leave for work where I realize that I am running behind and have to make a mad dash not to leave (too) late. It's a good thing I tend to time my drive to arrive 15-20 minutes before I have to be there.

Shit. NaBloPoMo just made me late.

Idea

2007-11-09T19:57:00.000-07:00

A social networking site, except productive. Built to further songwriting: lyricists post lyrics, musicians write music. It'd be all about connecting and creating songwriting teams.

It's gotten good feedback thus far, but I'm just barely able to make a hyperlink three times out of four. Is there a website fairy? God? Emma?

A Gentleman and a Scholar

2007-11-08T15:10:00.000-07:00

If this were my long-planned music website, I would probably have a recurring segment called "Awesome Dudes Doing Awesome Things." It would be a little bit of human interest, and maybe there would be a podcast where I would conference call with somebody and generally tell them that I thought they were rad. It would be masturbatory and I would love it, much to your chagrin, dear reader.

Instead, just let me tell you about a dude. His name is Avi Roig.

Late last year, Stylus ran their Top Singles of 2006 and I was intrigued by Ms. Annika Norlin and her lovely music as Hello Saferide. After trying unsuccessfully to buy her albums locally, her website ran me through Avi's site, It's A Trap.

It's A Trap is an MP3 blog devoted to Scandinavian music, but when you like something Avi talks about, you can just order it from him. He's cheap, he's fast, and for North American customers you can avoid pricey overseas shipping. I've ordered from him twice, and he has been absolutely fantastic both times. Albums that cost $25 plus shipping at Amazon are $15 including shipping from It's A Trap. He even runs a record label that has a free, online-only imprint that lessens production costs and falls under the Creative Commons Music License.

Avi is doing something incredibly noble: introducing wonderful music to a new market. More than that, he's a generous soul and immaculately professional. Please stop by, check out something from his free online label and if you like it, buy it. There's so much wonderful music at your fingertips, you don't have to try hard to find something to your tastes. Avi deserves to be taken care of, just as he's taking care of us.

Takk

2007-11-07T22:46:00.001-07:00

I needed today, a day where all I had was my favourite class, a birthday lunch with classmates, some new comics and a new Sigur Rós album. In a couple of days, things are going to get hectic again and it's nice to breathe for a while.

Feel that? Man.

I spent the last couple afternoons having lunch with some fellow internship classmates I had never spent much time around, and I'm relishing it. The class may be more than a little silly, but the fellows are rewarding. I'm not a very social person, and having some new friends invite me out to lunches and weekend bar excursions may do wonders for whatever it is that I need to improve. Kierla and Nicole want to start attending concerts as a group, so there's that. Whatever that is. Music, I guess; good times.

Plus, a new issue of Y: The Last Man is enough to make a day pretty decent.

Simplicity, iodine

2007-11-06T21:39:00.000-07:00

I'm dripping out of a hole in my hand. Somebody who shall remain nameless (no, the other one) broke the coffee pot, and put the jagged, broken piece right at the top of the garbage can. When I went to lift the bag out to leave behind the house, there it was. Why? Why? It seems a pretty easy thing, not to put it at the very top and to wrap it up so these things don't happen. I need sympathy, internet. A benefit show. Antiseptic.

Electrolytes

2007-11-06T02:05:00.000-07:00

I know I'm late for my NaBloPoMo post, but I had to readjust priorities. It now goes:

1. Wilco
2. University
3. Blancheflower

I'm damn near dead, and I don't know how I'll actually do these presentations, but I'm done. Now I've got papers, exams and a professional conference to worry about, but at least I've got some breathing room. I plan to waste it, then do this all over again. Because that's a good work ethic.

One

2007-11-04T23:36:00.000-07:00

All I've got tonight are some notes I've been writing for a song. It's rudimentary, but some of the lines have been kicking around since the spring:

Goddamn man
It's just another night
The chains are
One by one and tight

Halogen
And the basement's tapes
Left and right
Gonna break your heart

Put your shoes on
Pick a rope
We're going out tonight

The streets are blue and white
The streets are blue and white
The streets are blue and white

Give myself a holy spirit
Sparkling copper bonfires

This poster is killing me, I'll see you tomorrow. It will be done, copacetic.

Still at it

2007-11-03T23:56:00.000-06:00

I really shouldn't have taken an hour off to watch Wilco perform on Austin City Limits tonight, but it was totally worth it. I'm about as far into my presentation planning as I'm going to get tonight; I've made the subcategories and have started to go back through my notes to arrange individual points. Besides, how often do I get to watch them perform stuff from their first album?

I've got priorities, you see.

I finished almost all of my reading today, so I'm going to take advantage of the extra hour of Daylight Savings Time and finish it off before bed. That way, I can spend most of my time on the unit tomorrow just working on the poster. Isn't it great to have a job where I get paid $20/hour to do homework?

Put your shoes on, we're going out tonight

2007-11-02T18:23:00.000-06:00

I'm not really a fan of the game, but Taylor's asked me to go to a poker night he's throwing tonight so I'm heading out. I didn't get enough work done today, so I'm coming home early to get some of my Hoffman reading out of the way. This probably isn't a smart choice, but what can you do?

Work on the children and advertising poster is slowly coming along, I've got a lot more academic papers discovered, and a few areas of the poster mapped out. My schedule:

Tonight:
1. Poker night
2. Hoffman reading

Tomorrow:
1. Reading and jotting notes from papers at work.
2. Start summarizing notes into sections

Sunday:
1. Finish reading at work
2. Pick up poster board and some card (colour suggestions?)
2. Write advertising notes into draft
3. Print and start assembling poster
4. Map out slides for Internship presentation

Whew, I'm tired just writing that. Now the task is seeing if I can keep up with any of it; I've already missed out on this entire week's goal of shaving even a single time. At this point, I'm justifying it by saying it makes me look more dudely.

Killing me softly

2007-11-01T23:12:00.000-06:00

It was a hectic October, one that started off with a deadline for a poster I'm presenting in Banff in three weeks and didn't let up until about a week ago. The way it was scheduled, I'd have about two days, three tops to work on each project and it's a miracle I made it through. So I took the last week to catch my breath. Shit.

Now I'm staring down two presentations I have to prepare for next Tuesday, and three papers (four if I want to do something like, for instance, go to grad school and get the career I want) in the four weeks following. So if anybody wants to write on the following for me, it would be appreciated:

-Issues of compliance surrounding forensic clients in a clinical psychological setting
-Children's processing of advertisements and brand recognition
-Issues of individual choice and institutional failures in moral transgressions in Gothic novels

Any takers?

Woes: baseball metaphor courtesy of Fenway

2007-10-26T19:26:00.001-06:00

I think I'll hesitate from ordering things from Apple online from now on. Don't get me wrong, I love their products. They're right for me, and I've become a devoted user; no problems there. The problems lie in their shipping.

Last year, when I ordered my Macbook, shipping was repeatedly delayed without them notifying me and I ended up making repeated calls and finally getting a discount. Essentially, my hard drive upgrade was free. I was pissed, but after using the computer I forgave them, because I love it.

This week, my dad and I preordered the family bundle of Leopard from the online store, simply because they guaranteed it would be delivered to our door today, the release date. It's not here. Apple's phone rep was prepared to promise me that it would arrive tomorrow, until I asked him to verify it and he told me to double check with Purolator. I figured that this was the guy who took 5 minutes to find my account and order on the computer, so I probably couldn't take what he said at face value.

Purolator said it would arrive on Tuesday, and Apple said we'd have to just wait, since they couldn't cancel our order and they weren't going to discount it. Unacceptable. The order is now set as a return, and they were going to make us pay for the shipping cost - all of this because of their mistake - until we told them that wasn't acceptable either. They're now covering the cost and I have a copy of Leopard from Westworld Computers sitting in front of me on the ottoman. We would have bought it from London Drugs, but Apple didn't ship the family bundle to any of their locations.

This is two strikes for Apple's online store. I'm not even sure I should give it another pitch.

The Spice is Life.

2007-09-20T18:26:00.001-06:00

Dune potato chips?
Originally uploaded by Leask

Faulted

2007-09-17T15:13:00.001-06:00

The Arcade Fire are assholes.

Yes, it's true. At least, when it comes to their country. As a fan, it's constantly frustrating to be only a half member of the North American music community; in Canada we share album release dates with America, but routinely get shunned when it comes time for some of our favourite bands to tour behind their recent releases. Toronto is a guaranteed stop, and Vancouver and Montreal are perennial favourites as well. Occasionally, like Spoon recently did, they'll play in Victoria and Vancouver, fulfilling their redundancy quota for the week. In Edmonton, it's often the case that to show my support for a band I love, I would have to drive 11 hours to Vancouver to do it. The real problem? I like to listen only the artist in question the day of their concert, and after that drive I don't think I'd want to see them anymore. I'd turn around and drive home.

I hear you asking, "But why blame the Arcade Fire, if this is across the whole industry?" That is a very good question. There's the expectation that a band takes care of their own first, which is why I can justify not having yet seen Sigur Rós or Hello Saferide. On the positive side of this, I've had ample opportunity to see Sloan, Matthew Good and Danny Michel. So when I first heard Funeral in 2004, I was excited with the prospect of seeing their famed live show (famed that is, by Eastern US fans who had already seen them, often several times)

So I waited. In October 2005, thirteen months after Funeral was released, they finally deigned. After over a year spent touring through the United States and overseas, they finally played their home country, citing good intentions but unfortunate circumstances. Of course, it sold out in less than ten minutes and I wasn't able to go.

But I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, because they seemed apologetic about it. When Neon Bible was announced, I figured they'd amend their mistake and do a decent-sized Canadian tour. Ha. Five months and no date in site, but they've played the usual suspects. Maybe it's an Eastern thing. Maybe it's another unfortunate circumstance.

What I do know is that in the meantime, other Canadian acts with major southern press have scheduled shows here, including the New Pornographers, Final Fantasy, Tegan & Sara and the Weakerthans. Large American bands like Wilco, Dinosaur Jr. and the White Stripes have played here. Hell, The Raveonettes will have scheduled a show, delayed it twice and eventually played by the time my countrymen get to it.

Assholes.

Bet you got it all planned, right?

2007-09-05T00:29:00.000-06:00

You're bummed, right? The leaves are changing, classes are starting and you're wondering where it all went. Not the summer, but everything else. Things are coming to an end, and everybody's slowly being knocked off. It started in the spring and it's only getting worse, seeds to the wind before it frosts. You're feeling the need for some weight yourself and offshores are looking dandier and dandier. But it's gotta wait. Tides and seasons and whatever, pollen and nectar.

But don't you nevah be down, I said don't evah. Because it's gonna keep 'em hanging around.

Via Pop Candy: Keepon is gonna soften the blow.

West of Center

2007-08-18T15:06:00.000-06:00

I don't take vacations very often, generally because my jobs don't afford paid time off and I like to do things like put gas in my car and have shoes on my feet. Which really just lets me go to work; it's a nasty cycle, I know. Also, if I don't give them money every autumn, the people at the university get testy and that tends to make things a bit awkward.

But I digress.

Having a full time job for over a year let me take time off this year, and I used the opportunity to go visit my cousin Allene in Toronto. A week in the heart of the hustle and bustle, I figured, would either kill me outright or encourage some sort of regeneration of the fleshy and ghostly selves. It turns out, it was the latter. I really needed this.

It's hackneyed to say, but everything really is different on vacation. Even when we were just sitting around at 2am watching Scrubs it seemed to have a revitalizing effect. A day on the Toronto Islands fulfilled the Fun in the Sun quota as well as a rather impressive hole-digging on the beach. There was an art show, a historical house complete with cute tour guide, the CBC Museum, Royal Ontario Museum and lots of walking. Oh god, there was a lot of walking. I'm walked out, spent. If I was a thinker, I'd parlay that into an excuse not to exert myself back home. Instead, when I'm laying on the floor and someone dangles the leash in front of me, all I can muster is a low moan. I close my eyes and think of all the places I walked to. Like the grocery store where we bought ice cream (twice!). or the Future bakery where we bought cheesecake. Or the restaurants. Or Starbucks. Guessing a pattern?

One thing I was consistently surprised with was how green downtown Toronto is. It's a genuinely beautiful place at times, filled with gardens and trees. Edmonton could take a cue from it, instead of paving over the grass. The city also has a certain sense of history surrounding it; the architecture has a certain weight that the urban prairie lacks. We're a fan of boxes here, big brown and grey ones. Toronto, she's an old-fashioned dame, and she's got a certain shapely swagger that can be kind of irresistible.

Allene was, true to her parents, a spectacular host. She even threw my sister and myself a party. If I get the chance, I'll try to return the favour. But since we might be spending Christmas visiting her and her family in Vancouver, there may be another upcoming chance for me to eat her food.

Remembered

2007-07-29T16:44:00.000-06:00

In the new year I made a resolution to post here more, but obviously that has fallen by the wayside in the last few months. Truthfully, it has been neither from neglect nor laziness. Which is probably a first. Instead, there has been a rock in front of me, a Boyg stretching as far around as I can't see. On May 16th, my sister Jessie died.

A brief interlude: sister might be a strong word. People like Donell will know that in the strictest sense, I only have one. But Jessie used to joke that she was my sister and my parents loved her best, so that became a bit part of our dynamic and how I remember her. In time I spent enough time around her family that we settled into the kind of soft familiarity that only families and old friends have.

I am grateful that I remember these parts most, as opposed to the rest. Hospital visits, surgeries, a cabinet of medication. Those are all there, but... not. It was in her hospital room that I first watched Bruce Almighty as I leaned in on the bed. It was because of her surgery that we really became brother and sister. I carried her medicine cabinet when I helped her move into her own apartment, which had once seemed so hazy and distant. It's all about perspective, I guess. Either that, or just easier to laugh than to cry.

She was adorable and she knew it. No matter what she said, no matter how much she dodged work at the IGA I met her at, she was still perfect. She hid out in the manager's office spying on coworkers when she should have been already done organizing uniforms. She made the stockboys give her rides on carts. Actually, she never made us, she just kind of suggested it. Moreso than any of us, she got bored, and when she was bored she made things. Somewhere I've still got the paper bracelet and one of the drawings of coworkers she made me, though I've long since lost the plastic bag hat. The building is full of memories of her.

So is my own bedroom. I've still got a book she lent me that I never finished, now I'm afraid to. The bracelet and picture are nearby, I don't have to look too hard. Every day I pass the picture CD, funeral program and list of things she always wanted to do that I got at her funeral. After that, I take a stack of papers off my chair and somewhere in the middle is the section of the newspaper that has an article on her passing. The local media loved her, but they were just some of the people standing in line.

In the last year, we didn't manage to see eachother. She worked two jobs and I had mine. We would trade text messages in the middle of the night, apologizing to eachother for not being able to make time. It's an old story by now, but that's not how the endings go. There's a plane and a speech and the other person stays. Cue credits. How the fuck can I beat pneumonia? At her funeral the priest gave us the talk, the one where it's part of His plan and we should take solace in that. Really? Really? It's supposed to make me feel better that the best person I knew is gone and the upstairs neighbor planned it? That's not my God, man. He's crying too.

A few weeks after she passed I saw Away From Her, a movie filled with the same kind of gauzy memories and gnawing sadness that are still here. Gordon Pinsent watches his wife fade away into dementia and all he can do is try to hold on. I still think of her in the present tense, you know. I see something in a store or hear a song on the radio, think about how much she'd like it and store it away for a birthday. There's the Boyg again, and I can't seem to find my way around. There's a long way and a short way, but the way through requires the kind of admission and humility I can't muster yet. So here I am, feeling around in the black.

Bad day

2007-05-22T23:16:00.000-06:00

You are asking questions, and there will be answers. But not tonight.

Killing him won't bring back your goddamned honey

2007-04-03T20:53:00.000-06:00

Is it wrong that I never wanted to see the movie until I saw this montage?

Already good at marching

2007-03-31T19:55:00.000-06:00

eli stern don't surf: did you know that a penguin is a colonel-in-chief of the kings guard of the norwegian army?

Mïchælberg: i had no idea

eli stern don't surf: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nils_Olav

Mïchælberg: i want to see a television series (a gritty one) that will flesh out the back story here

eli stern don't surf: where he pecks a dude's eye out?

Mïchælberg: but isnt too sure he did the right thing

eli stern don't surf: as his moral crisis spirals into major depression, he takes to risky maneuvers and the bottle

Mïchælberg: I would watch that

eli stern don't surf: i smell a pilot

The worst reality televison idea ever

2007-03-16T19:26:00.000-06:00

Convicted sex offenders in a residential treatment program, tired of the routine and longing to be outside and free. Staff admiring the comfort of said routine and all the prepared meals it affords. Switch places. Hilarious results.

PVC

2007-03-14T23:12:00.000-06:00

Today-

Pros:
-The head of forensic research told my supervisor that I'm one of the best, most accurate workers he's seen in a while. She relayed this to me in front of the program manager.
-Bought 20pc. Ammonite dish set for 75% off at Stokes.
-After talking with the lady at Aveda about the return of my dandruff, it was discovered that the Rosemary & Mint shampoo and conditioner I've been using have also been drying my scalp out. I'm now switching to the Shampure variety.
-Calabrese olives.
-Danny picked up my course calendar for me, so I'm all clear to register for classes on ~~Sunday~~ Tuesday.

Cons:
-Missed Bones, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.
-The poppy seed candy recipe I tried out tonight was a disaster, despite following it precisely. The poppy seeds just floated to the top of the mixture, which even after 40 minutes setting and another hour in the freezer, still didn't set. When I was finally able to harden it enough to get it out of the pan, it just melted right onto the cutting board. The 2" squares? Rolled up, they're a lot bigger than marbles: it yields 16, not 40, using the measurements she gives. When I finally ate one? It made me sick.

Brainsss

2007-02-22T23:18:00.000-07:00

It is no secret that Veronica Mars is just about my favourite show on television. And that I hate Myspace. In a perfect world they wouldn't ever be uttered in the same sentence, because I'm pretty sure that every time it happens, I die a little. Does it work if I just mention Kristen Bell? Do I just lose a toe? A couple of years? Is this basically like smoking?

Aw hell, I'm pretty sure this counts as understandable risk anyway.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Still going to hell

2007-02-13T00:01:00.000-07:00

My first thought when watching a Manitoba Hydro commercial about the importance of saving the sturgeon and its habitat?

I wonder what it tastes like.

Grammy, Best Compilation Soundtrack

2007-02-11T00:46:00.000-07:00

I'm such a sheep; Donell recently did the Soundtrack To Your Life Challenge, that popular meme where you put iTunes on shuffle and each song corresponds to certain questions. Challenge? Challenge? I'll be damned if I'm going to be shown up by an Easterner and I encourage you all to put him in his place.

Anyway.

Opening Credits: Art Brut - "Formed a Band"
Waking up: Sufjan Stevens - "Once in David's Royal City"
First day at school: Kokopelli - "Close Now Thine Eyes"
Falling in love: Paul McCartney - "Here Today"
Breaking up: Pavement - "Raft"
Life's OK: Snow Patrol - "Tiny Little Fractures"
Breakdown: Celestial Season - "Sharks and Razors"
Driving: Sarah Harmer - "The Phoenix"
Flashback: The Vines - "Ain't No Room"
Getting back together: Johnny Cash - "Folsom Prison Blues (Live at Folsom Prison)"
Wedding: Interpol - "Narc"
Sex scene: Led Zeppelin - "Kashmir"
Birth of child: The Rolling Stones - "Brown Sugar"
Final battle: The Weakerthans - "(Past Due)"
Death scene: Great Big Sea - "Lukey (Live)"
Funeral song: Ellen Allien & Apparat - "Do Not Break"
Dance sequence: Box Five - "Snow Hymn"
End credits: Silverchair - "Pure Massacre"

Um?

Natalie Portman

2007-02-02T18:21:00.000-07:00

After a few weeks without any new purchases, the last two weeks have been filled with new CDs. Some of it has been a last dash to pick up 2006's albums before I make my year end list, but more recently that's becoming new releases. Some of them are ones I've been waiting for months for, like the new albums from Deerhoof and Menomena. Then there's, well... the Shins.

See, I've got something to admit; while Wincing the Night Away, the Shins' latest, was the first new album of the year I bought, I actually haven't listened to it yet. And... I really only bought it because it was cheap. And I had a plan to get an HMV staff member to ask me if I'd found everything I was looking for so I could say no and they'd offer to order the ones I wanted for me. Couldn't I have just gone up and asked them to order something for me? No, because that would be too easy and you seem to have forgotten THAT I'M CRAZY.

I found out about the Shins though the same two avenues as most people did, Scrubs and Garden State. But they didn't change my life, even if "New Slang" is fantastic. I was feeling all warm and fuzzy and, smitten with a single song and armed with a good review, I bought an album. That's really all there is to say, I guess, because that's all there is. It's just there on my shelf and I really don't listen to it that much. It's under a Theory of a Deadman album, just to give you an idea of how long it's been since I looked at it. It's kind of charming, I guess, in a Silly Symphony kind of way. I'll probably listen to it eventually, but I just can't muster up the motivation.

Got any albums I should listen to? I need something to cover this one.

Wherein our hero clarifies

2007-01-11T18:43:00.000-07:00

By now you may be wondering where this resolution has gone. See, the thing I didn't mention in the last post was that I am waiting for something. Something very special. Last week I ordered a couple of CDs by Hello Saferide, who has made some of my favourite songs of 2006 and probably one of my favourite albums (Would You Let Me Play This EP Ten Times a Day?). But I can't just call it one of my favourite albums yet, that would be presumptive.

So I wait. And so do you, apparently.

But what's that? I could just make other posts instead? That would make too much sense, but I guess you've got me there.

I'm tired, people; competely worn out and exhausted and I've been that way for a month. I seem to be the only person on the unit who hasn't gotten sick yet, which is a small relief because the last thing I need is to miss a few days of work and an even greater need to sleep constantly. But I'll make due, just try to get to bed earlier. I mean, what else can I do? Oh? Really? Watch Entourage? If you insist.

Be patient, there's more coming after the first season and 4-7 business days.

I haven't told you yet

2007-01-02T22:26:00.000-07:00

Happy new year and welcome to 2007. How were your celebrations? Myself, I watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, ate dinner and fell asleep on the couch at 10:30. And that was just ducky. I won't bore you with a summary of 2006, that's what the archives are for. Instead, I'll simply share my sole resolution for the new year: to post more. In the next week I plan to share my lists of top albums and singles of 2006 along with a more standard post. Ears open, class.

Finally, I'd like to share a video that sums everything up just perfectly from a lady who is just about the best thing around these days. Happy holidays.

God bless

2006-12-25T14:58:00.000-07:00

Last night at 11:45pm MST James Brown passed away.

He will be missed.

Rest in peace.

first single: the dark king (mister snuffles)

2006-12-06T20:22:00.000-07:00

eli stern: and some day i will start my tongue-in-cheek death metal band, Apocalypse Fetus

*Allene*: 0_o eek

eli stern: the fun part is that we will actually be singin' about real positive stuff, rainbows and kittens and the like. but nobody will be able to tell, cos we'll be screamin'

*Allene*: just don't include lyrics in the liner notes

eli stern: indeed. or if we do, make the liner notes all 60s psychadelic with flowers and rainbows

*Allene*: people will feel like suckers cause they'll be all hardcore, with albums covered in flowers and smiley faces

eli stern: maybe we'll just make those things in again. or totally hardcore. i mean, fuck yeah!

*Allene*: dang. it's a foolproof plan

eli stern: all of a sudden the metalheads of the world are a lot less scary and a lot nicer smelling

*Allene*: and have a new appreciation for kittens

I fell in love with a girl at the rock show

2006-11-25T17:28:00.000-07:00

Last night I had the distinct pleasure of hanging out with my friends The Red Hot Daggers. The occasion? Their headlining gig of Edmonton Indie Unscene featuring Circle/Square, Atrophy Manuscript, Snic and a band on the label the Daggers run, Champion City Records, Desiderata. While I was originally planning to just go for the Daggers' set at the end of the night, Eric asked me to show up early to see Desiderata.

I'm glad I did. The band definitely has a definite (post?) hardcore feel and a lot of the screaming I'm usually not a fan of, the band plays their instruments well and singer Blair Drover has a stage presence that can only be described as powerful. And they had their brand new album for sale. So I bought it; what else could I do? The verdict: fantastic.

The rest of the evening was pretty great, too. The next three bands didn't top Desiderata, though Atrophy Manuscript definately came close. They lost points for complaining more than once about how they needed the polarity on the lead singer's mic switched because it was shocking him. Eventually he just draped his hoodie over it (+10 for ingenuity!) and finished the set.

But Friday belonged to the Red Hot Daggers. I've been to all but one or two of their shows and this was probably the best yet. Energetic, passionate and a little scary to be honest. My favourite song was almost shortened but at the last minute they decided to do the full buildup. Made my night. Most of all, they seemed to be really having fun whereas previously things have gone wrong technically for them and it's ruined their whole vibe. Everything was perfect last night, they were all working really well together despite being so tired and having to be up so early today for a video shoot. What I love about these shows is the sense of camaraderie everybody has; the bands all know eachother and most of the fans are friends and their friends, so everybody has a really good time.

I don't know what to say about the Red Hot Daggers to really sell them. They're a fantastic band. They'll blow you away. Give them a shot and check out the new demo on their website. [Edit: Actually, I do have something to say; the whole night was so good, so loud that my hearing only got back to normal about half an hour before I got to my staff Christmas Party at 7:30.]

But before I go, the setlist:
-1
-4
-3
-5
-2
-6 (new song)

Yeah, that's right.

Seriously this is not unexpected

2006-11-24T18:37:00.000-07:00

Noted alcoholic Albertan premier Ralph Klein holds his farewell party in a bar. But to be fair, it has nostalgic value; it's the bar where he decided to go into politics.

Just about the worst hangover Alberta could have had.

2006-11-23T23:57:00.000-07:00

I'm sick. After weeks of the rest of my family, friends and coworkers all coming down with something, it's finally caught up to me. And this upcoming week is one where I can't afford to really have any downtime; I've got a Red Hot Daggers concert tomorrow night I promised Eric I'd go to, Dr. Studer's Christmas party on Saturday that I promised Melissa I'd meet her at and oh yeah... my second term internship assignment.

Kill me.

Like bacon

2006-11-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

After three weeks in transit, my 2-disc deluxe reissue of Pavement's Wowee Zowee finally came yesterday. It shipped via air from New York and cleared customs on the 6th, 1 week after it shipped. Let's work that out:

a)1 week to make a 2 hour drive.
b)2 weeks to make a delivery that usually takes 2-3 business days

Something seems off about that. I'm not sure what, maybe you can help. It is the week? The two? The in explicably long air transit? The fact that this poor a level of service implies not just ineptitude but genuine mental retardation? There's just too much to pick from. Comment or send an email. Write-in candidates welcome.

Oh yeah, and the album is amazing. I look over at the bonus 7" it came with and just smile. But that's not the point, is it? Is it? Spite is, and you can never have too much of that.

With the light out it's less dangerous

2006-11-21T20:58:00.000-07:00

This is just about the best thing I've seen in a long time. It's not often you find a cover that divergent from the original. Or that good, period. Look at the dude on the far left; that's intense.

The hypothetical third person

2006-11-21T01:31:00.000-07:00

Wow. One minute a dude is playing Children of Mana and it's 11pm, the next it's 1am and he's got a list of things to do. But now he's catching up on his schoolwork, the garbage and recycling are behind the house, he's tidied up the upstairs and shredded his old documents. Old pop cans are emptied and collected. The doors are locked. He's ready for bed.

Hm. What's left? He's missing something.

Oh yeah. Children of Mana.

Casino Royale

2006-11-19T22:45:00.000-07:00

Every few years, a new Bond film comes out and at some point or another, my Dad and I watch it together. This goes back to when I was a kid and TBS ran its month of Bond movies and we'd watch them together, night after night, him telling me all these stories about the actors. It became something we looked forward to, a way for us to spend some time together and grow even closer, much to my Mum's chagrin by the time the month was halfway through and I was asking her if she expected me to die. When Goldeneye came out in 1995, it was one that my dad and I enjoyed together. Over the next three, our interests waned a bit and by Die Another Day we both saw it but not together. When a new one was announced, neither of us took much notice.

But on Thursday night, Dad came upstairs and asked me if I wanted to see Casino Royale on Saturday. Just starting to nod off, I said yes and we agreed to talk about it on Friday. At some point after dinner, he told me the story behind wanting to see it: when he was around my age, he read the book and enjoyed it so much, he even went to Monaco to go to the real Casino Royale. This shaped a good part of his wandering time in Europe and the rest of his life. Suddenly, another part of the mystery of my father's young life came into better focus. And I wanted to see the movie even more.

After over half an hour of driving through the parking lot and waiting in lines, we sat down with our popcorn and talked a bit, the idle chit-chat of something very familiar. When the lights dimmed, we were somewhere else. I was a kid again and I was going to hear some stories. Of course, that's never the way it actually works when you're in your twenties, not quite. I'm not twelve, that can't be helped. But we whispered jokes to eachother and snuck eachother grins. Dad pointed out the original Aston Martin from Goldfinger and we grimaced when the new one was destroyed. He teased me after the climax, reminding me that he know how it ended. Eventually, we stood up and left with everybody else.

The movie was good. For all the world's worries, Daniel Craig plays a very good Bond, very much like Connery in the first films I saw as a boy. He's a very serious Bond, just learning some of his later flair. And he's not very likeable, but very few murderers are. I'd recommend it wholeheartedly and see it again. The plot is smooth and well thought out with enough twists to keep it interesting. The characters are vivid and M is at her most sympathetic yet. Casino Royale is Bond stripped down to the bare essentials, and I'm very much looking forward to the next one. At the very least, I'll get to hear a few more stories.

Fragments

2006-11-18T23:57:00.000-07:00

Swimming in a suit of feathers
They tarred on last night
The whisper on the strip
Say that he's not long

-

Another quicksilver winter
Jack be nimble, flash
It's the god-honest truth

-

Everybody's wearing white sheets
I'm looking for feet
But it's all the same these days
They're everywhere

Purchased at The Gap

2006-11-16T22:40:00.000-07:00

-Sandblasted vintage jeans, loose straight leg
-rugby striped scarf, blue/navy
-hoodie with reverse seams, beige

And yet I actually went in for a pair of cords for work, which I didn't actually buy. Oh well.

Denouement

2006-11-16T21:09:00.000-07:00

I got to the WEM Police Station last night and walked in. The constable, sitting at a table at the back, looked up as I walked up to the counter. After a few seconds, he mumbled a greetings and asked me to wait. So I waited.

And waited.

Five or so minutes later (forgive the approximation, it's hard to tell for sure when you're in a place where it seems like time stands still), he sauntered up to the front. "What do you need?"

"I was told to come drop off an accident report for Constable Klenke."

"Accident report?" You'll have to imagine a sneer here, it was pretty spectacular.

"Um... yeah. I witnessed an accident on Saturday."

"I'll get you the sheet," he grumbled and returned shortly with it. Now, I understand that they probably DO need the triplicate carbon paper copy of the summary, but they specifically asked me to write it up at home and bring it in. Whatever, I guess. No real harm there. So I sit down and get to work transcribing a report that I can only describe as painstakingly crafted. While doing so, I overheard him be just as rude, lazy and unhelpful to two more people, one of whom was looking for a missing child. That's serious stuff, people! The police should be here to help, no?

Anyway, back to business.

I finished and headed back to the desk, where he proceeded to make me wait again. Eventually, he grumbled something I can only presume was a goodbye, though it easily could have been "Go loiter somewhere else, punk," "I've got important things to do" or "Get cancer."

I've never been treated so rudely by an EPS officer before. Obviously this man is an exception because I've never found another officer in the city, EPS or RCMP, to be anything short of polite, friendly and professional. The moral? Don't even bother with the West Edmonton Mall Police Station if possible, just drive the five or ten minutes to West Division and guarantee that you'll be treated like the law abiding citizen that you are.

And after all that...

2006-11-14T23:56:00.000-07:00

the Police station was closed at 5pm, which they failed to tell me when they asked me to drop off my accident summary. I guess the law took an evening off. That explains all the hubcaps in my trunk.

Givin' me the wiggins

2006-11-13T23:01:00.000-07:00

In August, Michael and I were at West Edmonton Mall looking for a backpack that would fit his 17" Macbook Pro (jealous? I was; then I got my own 13" Macbook.) As we were pulling out of the exit near HMV - yes, it doesn't matter if my friends are there, I just drag them along - when the light changed, I had to immediately jam my foot on the brakes because some dude was speeding through a red light. Scary, yes, but we survived with nary a urine stain. And until recently, it was just something near the back of my head telling me to be extra careful when I left the mall.

That is, until Saturday.

When I was leaving HMV (again!), a car at the front of the line pulled out only to be hit by a truck going through the red light. The 16 year-old kid managed to slow down enough that he didn't seriously injure anybody in the vehicle he hit. Everybody was a little spooked, but they all limped off to the mall Police station to file a report, something I still have to do tomorrow night. The creepy part, however, is the situation of the accident: same intersection, same day of the week, same time of day. A little creepy. I guess I'm gonna have to be even more careful from now on. Actually, this sounded a whle lot creepier before I typed it all out. Ah well.

(And yes, that's a Buffy reference in the title. You'll have to bear with me for a while with this.)

Conversations with dead people

2006-11-12T22:17:00.000-07:00

Today I bought the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Chosen Collection of all seven seasons on DVD and I'm very excited about it. Buffy was one of the first live action shows besides M*A*S*H I can remember watching, a show that dealt with the idea of growing up as I was doing it myself. Cheesey? Hell yeah, but it's true. The show had a remarkably potent effect on me during my formative years; it's become the gold standard for what kind of writing and dialogue I crave.

The plan is to watch the entire series from first episode to last (except for the first two episodes, which I watched with Michael and Shani fairly recently) and basically relive one of the more awesome parts of my childhood. And by that I of course mean Alyson Hannigan.

Itsa me

2006-11-11T22:57:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I went out to see Borat with some friends but due to theatre hoppers we ended up getting ticket refunds and free passes to The Departed, which was TOTALLY RAD. At that point I was still pretty enamoured with all the positive press Borat had been garnering, all the "comedy of the year exclamation point exclamation point" blurbs really did sound tempting. But over the course of the week, I started to get bored with the shtick as I saw more and more television appearances. And let's face it, it really is just a shtick. And if you like that shtick then 90 minutes of it is going to be pretty awesome. If you don't, then hopefully you've got a big enough popcorn bag to fit your head into.

The movie, as I saw it, comes down to a few recurring gags:
-bad grammar
-poop jokes
-Americans being asses
-rape jokes
-Jew jokes
-male nudity
-Baywatch

And yeah, the nude manfight is as awesome as it sounds, but that's not enough to save the movie. They didn't even show anything good.

Maybe it's my job that ruins the rape jokes for me, but I just couldn't get into the "Oh Borat" mindset that the movie requires; the fact that these got laughs but the crack about the Jews being responsible for 9/11 was too far is just depressing. I mean one is knee slapping fun but the other gets gasps? I just don't know anymore. That shit's just depressing. All in all, the movie was just too long. If I hadn't seen so many commercials, reviews, blog posts and TV appearances then I might have made it through at least the first hour. After that I probably would have reacted the same way and that's okay. I am very clearly the minority here, judging from the nearly sold out theatre and raucous laughter, so I'm not going to hold any sour grapes. It has its audience and it will make a lot of year end lists. I don't need every movie to cater to me, I just wish that I'd spent $10.95 on Stranger Than Fiction instead.

2006-11-10T19:39:00.000-07:00

I love my sister, oh Lord I do, but whenever she comes up for a weekend I am "encouraged" to keep my schedule clear so that we can spend time together, which is not only disruptive but also misleading. As an adult without a learner's permit, she inevitably asks me to merely drive her and her friends somewhere. So naught but moments after I give cautious maybe-laters to a few friends' offers for excitement tonight, this request is the third sentence out of her mouth after she comes in the door.

So I said no. And now I feel like shit.

I mean really the choice is simple

2006-11-09T19:00:00.000-07:00

It is no secret that Michael and I have differing opinions about music, Radiohead and Beck aside. For example, he hates Oasis, whose album (What's the Story) Morning Glory? was the first I ever bought, igniting a lifelong love of the band. After a recent discussion started, things quickly took a turn for the worse and it wasn't really his fault. But to be fair, he came close to invoking Godwin's Law while I invoked the generally more well-liked John Lennon.

eli stern: All we are saying is give peace a chance.

Mïchælberg: That should not be used to defend oasis.

eli stern: But noel and liam are huge john lennon fans! He is like the one person they won't badmouth! Liam even named his child after him!

Mïchælberg: Bad people can like good people. Mark david chapman liked Lennon too.

eli stern: No they can't, it's a scientific impossibility. He is misunderstood! Also, crazy! Surely you can't badmouth a dude who's mentally ill that much!

Mïchælberg: I am sorry you can't use science here either, since you have clearly demonstrated you lack of reason and logic in liking oasis.

eli stern: Science is for everybody, not just you boy-hungry awesome-o-phobes!

Mïchælberg: Science damn you!

eli stern: So put down the NAMBLA newsletter and start feeling the legal kind of love!

Mïchælberg: See... irrational.

eli stern: I already established in the previous statement that you're a gay pedophile. Or at least that is my hypothesis. Only science can say for sure!

Mïchælberg: Ramblings.

When I offered to get him into a study at my work where a psychiatrist is measuring mental arousal using EEG when subjects look at pictures of children, teens and adults, he backed out, citing a lack of time! Like grad students actually do anything! Valid reason, or panicked attempt at self preservation? ONLY YOU CAN DECIDE.

On a season-long plot arc about serial rape on Veronica Mars

2006-11-08T00:05:00.000-07:00

Now harder to take my mind off work when I get home on Tuesdays. I mean come on, leave that to CSI: Miami.

...of fun!

2006-11-07T18:23:00.000-07:00

My job has its ups and downs, its highs and lows, its moments... Actually, I could keep going on that for a while, so let's just cap that with the vernacular, if I may. It's a rollercoaster. I've said before that it's challenging, but really, what else would be expected on a unit for the treatment of convicted sex offenders? Sometimes, a patient will surprise us and make us reevaluate where we think they are in treatment, other times they... well, not so much. On a lot of days, we see both those things. As I'm sure that you have surmised, dear reader, today was one of those days, making everything up to a now an elaborate way to state the obvious.

A lot of this is actually pretty standard. Some patients are on positive bends right now, others: not so much. High Risk group was especially difficult, but it often is. The more cognitive groups can be more difficult, especially after an emotional day of psychotherapy. As things often do in life, confusion gives way to embarassment and very often a healthy dollop of anger, which means that an equal amount of effort is often needed to work through this. At its best, the group takes care of this as peers help those having difficulty work through it. Almost as often, though, there are some who end up making it worse. Today was, let me hear it: BOTH! It's a lot of effort, but yeah, it's satisfying. I was able to talk to the unit psychiatrist (no, not about that, Hana!) to summarize one of the more stressful groups and got a lot of positive feedback for what I said in it. After some months on the job, I'm getting pretty good at calming down agitated patients. This ended the workday, which was good.

Apolgies for vagueness, but it's required. Working in a healthcare facility is one part of it, but I'm also working in one of the most secretive aspects of it, given the sensitive nature of the clientelle. Yes, I do realize that's pretty anticlimactic after the epic introduction. For that, I beg your forgiveness. Formalities aside, the hourlong drive home and trip to the grocery store is always a way to let the stress evaporate. And that's including bad road conditions and other drivers! Fuck yeah!

Epilogue: As some of you know, I've been theoretically participating in NaBloPoMo, but have missed a few posts already. I've been battling the beginnings of a cold and have been falling asleep before my routine posting time as a result, making the last post somewhat of a painful stopgap. The weekend summarizing post is often that, I've found. The point is, I'll make up for those posts.

And for my next trick

2006-11-05T23:59:00.000-07:00

I just had a nice lazy weekend. After some Friday excitement where Michael, Shani, Theo, Jesse and I went to see Borat but ended up seeing The Departed (there weren't any seats left though we had bought tickets, so the theatre refunded us and let us all see another movie for free), I settled into a nice relaxing next 48 hours of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the November issue of Vogue, Jeff Tweedy live tracks and about 7 hours of Children of Mana.

Wow. Did you hear that? That was the sound of your envy. Or my virginity. These days, I'm not sure I know anymore. Regardless, I still had a fairly fulfilling weekend. I mean yeah, to some the only discernible sound might be that of haunting loneliness, but sometimes that just sounds like Bauhaus turned up or early Ryan Adams sung in the shower. Not exactly jetsetting, but hey, I reap what I sow. The only thing that could have gone better would be early afternoon bento with Shelly, but she and her husband were out in Sherwood Park making roasted pepper somethingorother.

I am way too old to be 21.

It's a good life if you don't weaken

2006-11-03T20:53:00.000-07:00

I have the worst luck with ordering things and using the postal service. When I was six, my Nintendo Entertainment System came with a free subscription to Nintendo Power magazine. So I dutifully filled out the card and sat quietly as my mum drove me to the mailbox and I tipped it in. Almost sixteen years later, it still hasn't arrived. Should I send a letter?

In mid August, I ordered my Macbook and was given an estimated delivery date of the next week. The day after that rolled around, I got an email saying it been delayed another week. A week after that, I got a similar email. After a series of phonecalls with Apple, I got the computer discounted and the shipping upgraded to expedited for free, but nobody told Fedex. It shipped standard. Eventually, on September 6th, a full three weeks after it was supposed to be delivered, I finally got it. But they didn't deliver it - no, that would have been too simple, too easy; THEIR JOB,. I had to drive to the other side of the city with directions to the warehouse that included intersections that didn't exist. Think of something that could have gone wrong; it did.

On September 17th, I ordered two Sigur Ros singles off Amazon. The latter, Hoppipolla, had an estimated ship date of 1-2 weeks. On October 4th, an email said it was delayed 4-6 weeks. On Wednesday, another email amended that to another 4-6 weeks from now. The delivery date is now anywhere from December 4th to the 20th. That's three months after I ordered it. I've got no idea what to do; if I cancel it and order it in-store, it'll ship from the same place and likely take just as long. I've got this sinking feeling that next July as I step off the plane in Reykjavik, my first stop will be to a record store, who will probably just make me order it anyway.

one two one two one two

2006-11-02T23:09:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that I've got some odd tendencies. For years, it was just tidying tables and counters to have everything neatly organized in rows. A year or two ago, I started habitually making sure the doors were locked before I could get to sleep. If I didn't and thought about it, it'd bother me enough that I'd have to get out of bed, or it'd start eating away at me and I wouldn't sleep. The same thing for lyric ideas. I jokingly dismissed this as my "OCD tendency" to one of the forensic therapists at work, and after a few questions he got a distressed look on his face. "Yeah, that... could be worrying," he told me. But come on, making sure things get done? That's useful! That makes sure that my nightly routine gets done! So for a few months, I forgot about it. It wasn't really there, it wasn't even a shadow.

Now it's starting to bother me a bit more. A lot. It's getting to the point where an increasing amount of my thoughts every night are devoted to this routine. To making sure the pillows and duvet are in a certain position, that my pajama bottoms and shirt are in a certain position, that the mattress is okay. Earlier in the week, I spent two hours each night constantly rearranging these and getting out of bed to check the doors, touching the locks and pulling to make sure everything is just right. It's not uncommon these days for me to walk back and forth between the doors, checking and checking again. By 2:30 or 3 I get my mind off it long enough to fall asleep, or maybe it's just worn me out so much I can't help it.

This isn't normal and it's probably not healthy. I'm scared that it's actual obsessive compulsive disorder but I'm even more scared of actually talking to people about it. And it's not like I don't have good supports, I work on a unit with a psychiatrist, three forensic therapists, a social worker with a psychology degree and a psychologist as my supervisor. At a mental hospital, with countless professionals. I talk with the staff about everything else, but for some reason I can't seem to do it now. I'm starting to become afraid to go to bed, I'm not sure whether I'll be able to fall asleep or not. I don't think I can control it anymore, I definitely can't joke.

A mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in bacon

2006-11-02T00:03:00.000-07:00

Since I'm so much younger than almost the entire staff at work, it seems to be a common interest on the unit as to my love life. Generally speaking, it's just Shelly talking about me loving her, but occasionally I make a mistake. Like baking and bringing it to the unit. Now, everybody is just plain confused as to my being single. I'm getting all these comments about how "it will happen soon" and I'm "going to get snatched up" but all I can think of is not blushing.

[EDIT: This was NaBloPoMo post #1, so just pretend I got it in four minutes earlier.]

A perpetual contest to see can get to Hell the fastest

2006-10-21T13:13:00.000-06:00

Me: So, Stephen Hawking is getting a divorce.
Dad: What, is he not very good in bed?
Me: Yeah, I guess he just lays there.
Dad: It's a miracle he's still alive. But I don't think he's as smart as everyone says he is. He can't even talk without that machine.
Me: That's classy, Dad. Seriously, a new height for you.
Dad: I'm just saying, he uses a straw to type onto a keyboard and brilliant things come out. I think he's just a puppet.

Another

2006-09-10T12:35:00.000-06:00

Last night while taking a brief break from watching Battlestar Galactica, I suddenly just started humming a tune. Before long, I was singing.

Sugar hearts are impossibly sweet
They'll rot your teeth
Unless you flush them out
White houses all in a row
They're burning down
And you're kissing her

Don't you know?
My mummy warned me about girls like her
We're dying
My mummy warned me about days like this

Empty rooms and open doors
Too hot to breathe
The summer's over
You're supposed to be left wing
But you're jumping
And it's breaking

Don't you know?
My mummy warned me about girls like her
We're killing
My mummy warned me about days like this

Summer hearts in the pale air
They're serving killer punch next door

My mummy warned me about friends like this

My mummy warned me about days like this

New music

2006-09-07T01:08:00.000-06:00

Theo sent me a link to a new Joanna Newsom track tonight, and so far I'm really digging it. I'm told it's a lot spacier than her other stuff, but this is the first song of hers I've heard, so I'm not a very good judge. I do like it, though. This is probably another album going on the list of purchases to make.

Three's company too

2006-08-08T23:37:00.000-06:00

A long weekend is usually a time to relax and enjoy oneself, but I was actually pretty glad to get back to work today. While my naturally sedentary tendencies generally clamour, which is to say mildly express desire for something like this, something just seemed off this weekend. Maybe it's the fact that for the first time in my life I truly love my job. Maybe it was the uncomfortably warm weather on Monday or the fact that after Saturday my aunt and cousin weren't in town anymore. But it was probably the part where I had to help my grandparents move.

After my grandma's accident in the spring, her reduced mobility and both grandparents' imminent need for additional care meant their seniors-only independent living apartment building wasn't really appropriate anymore. This meant a move to a semi-independent living building, and just our luck there was one in a new development in our end of town. Unfortunately, a series of absurd regulations (who gives adult tenants a mandatory dress code?) meant that they had to settle for a smaller apartment in a building closer to their previous location. That's good, right? It's less distance to move everything and besides, do they really need all that extra space? They're provided with all their meals if they want, so they don't need a kitchen and as long as there are channels for my grandmother's walker to move through it's all good, right?

Not a chance in Hell, apparently.

It turns out that my grandma has spent the bulk of her adult life amassing posessions she no longer uses but can't bear to part with. She's also trying to maintain control in the only way she can, by making demands about furniture placement that can't actually be met. This was bad enough on the weekend; my dad is absolutely burnt out from three days of yelling and tension. I made it out relatively unscathed, with a few evenings put in, but my family's still dealing with the aftermath, which meant that even the last two days of the long weekend were spent simply recouperating. Do you know how many times a stressed out 89 year-old man can accidentally pull out the phone, cable and internet cables over the course of two days? Despite them being taped together and to the wall to make sure it doesn't happen again? Despite constant requests to leave it alone?

You'd be surprised.

I shot my baby

2006-06-03T03:47:00.000-06:00

I've been getting flashes of lyrics again after mostly finishing preliminary work on one called "All to Sea" back at the beginning of May. The stuff that's coming up as of late is a lot different than other songs I've written or ideas I've gotten, and it's even snuck into "All to Sea" as well; a song that started out as a restless plea for a change of pace has become something far more sinister and fractured. Suddenly, Brian Wilson's sun-dappled beaches are becoming Neil Young's "Down By the River," a song about hope and frustration that he wrote in the grips of a 105-degree fever and still carries that sense of immediacy and desperation. Sooner or later I'm bound to even out a little and write a few more Macca pop songs, but in the meantime:

All to Sea

So you flew in by Miami BOAC
I didn't get to sleep last night
I kept dreaming of the coast
And that treble in the sand

The black floor frightens
Seas of legs to the clouds
I've got a salt heart
It just sits on the road

Roadsigns on (to California)
No more pictures (of California)
God

I need something to look at, waves to drown
I didn't get to sleep last night
Drove into the river
Shot my tires, floated up

Onwards to Mecca
Eyes up, hands out

Down to the river
All to sea

Searchlights out (on the water)
Towers of fire (on the water)
Desire

Up to the first chorus is what I wrote in Psychology 323, and that's more or less the first mindset. After that, minus the last chorus, is what I wrote on a sunny afternoon in a café downtown by the courthouse, feeling kind of out of sorts. It's been smoothed out a little since.

Vitamins

2006-06-02T01:47:00.000-06:00

It's been four weeks on the new job, so I feel pretty safe in saying that it's the best one I've ever had. Admittedly, I've only had three others, and two of them were concurrent, so perhaps I'm not quite sure what a good job is. Maybe the paid stat holidays off are just going to my head. I mean seriously, I get paid to not come to work? It could be the cute evening nurse that I enjoy talking to or the free gym/yoga access. Hell, it might even be the newfound, corrupting power over others that I can only assume is eating away at my soul as I slowly fester into a deplorable husk of the man I once was. Whatever it is, I actually look forward to the 45 minute drive to work every morning, to working with convicted sex offenders for eight hours per day and to the hour-long drive home. It's challenging, interesting and I'm constantly learning; it's a multidisciplinary team so there's always something new. For the first time in a long time, I'm taking something from a job besides a paycheque.

Other things are going as well as can be expected. There's money for a few nice things and time for leisure. A few shoes, some albums, a little bit of yardwork. There have been movies and a few other good times. Tuesday night, Ashley and I hung out with the guys out at Hipster Twister for a little while before I got home in time to get a decent night's sleep before my eye surgery. This was to place a plastic valve in my eye to permanently drain fluid and keep the pressure down. Judging from my one day checkup, things are looking up, and a future without five different medications per day might one day be mine.

Maple Sugar is still going, though I missed last Saturday's deadline by a day and Phil's decided to just run the reviews next week. I'll get two more to him by deadline on Saturday night and see if he'll run a double update just to help me catch up with new releases. I've got ways. There's talk of me being involved with the label that The Red Hot Daggers - my friends Eric, Taylor and Eric - might start, which would be pretty fun. I'm not counting on anything just yet, but if it happens, it'd be a blast with those guys; the only problem would be getting any actual work done instead of just messing around all the time.

All in all, life is actually going pretty well for me at the moment; it feels so blatantly and annoyingly self-congratulatory to say it, but what else is there? Good job, my own car, good health, good friends, good times. Whoa, fuck. When did things get so good, and when did I become such a dick about it?

It is a serious affliction

2006-05-02T21:57:00.000-06:00

The first two installments of Maple Sugar are up over at Club Mac. I opened it up with reviews of Mogwai and Two Gallants' latest albums, and I'm generally fairly pleased with the results. One can only hope it will leave the Australian coeds in the throes of what I can only attempt to call Maple Fever.

Ta-da

2006-04-23T22:48:00.001-06:00

The logo:

The update: At least one review will be up on the 31st.

Burning up his fuse out here alone

2006-04-15T00:18:00.000-06:00

We all know that pop culture is cool culture. No surprise there. Because of this, combined with the increasingly short span of the average star's career, a good amount of their effort can go to remaining relevant. But at some point, it becomes a little excessive. I mean, this isn't "Rapper's Delight," it's not all F-L-Y. Eventually, it wears a little thin.

Case 1: Lloyd Banks, "I'm So Fly"

Really. The title should be enough. At this point, we know what the song's about, but maybe a closer look will surprise us.

I'm so fly, I got money
So that's good enough reason to buy the things I buy
I'm so high, I'm on point
And I could tell that your jealous just by the look in your eye
And when I ride by
I don't care, G-Unit's going straight to the top this year
Nigga I'm so fly, I got money
So that's good enough reason to buy the things I buy

I guess not. He's rich and has lots of things, we're jealous, he doesn't care. If that weren't enough, have you seen the video? He's rich and has a lot of things (a futuristic house!), and I guess we're jealous. Or he thinks we are. I don't know anymore. The bulk of the video, in between cutaway shots of his house, is Banks in front of his house just rapping, throwing money around. Just throwing it away, all over the street. And with all this, he doesn't even blink. Maybe they're all ones, I'm not sure. But the sheer nonchalance of it, the way he's practically just saying, "I'm not even going to pick these up. I pay my taxes, the city will come sweep them. Or maybe they'll run down the drain, it looks like rain," it's just too much. Nobody needs to try that hard.

Case 2: Destiny's Child - "Soldier"

No, it's not about the war, Green Day did that one. This is a song for all us hopefuls, the dudes who really, really need some of that ice cream. Double chocolate? Swirl? We don't mind. Unfortunately, most of us won't make the cut. Check the chorus:

If his status ain't hood
I ain't checkin' for him
Betta be street if he lookin' at me
I need a soldier
That ain't scared to stand up for me
Known to carry big things
If you know what I mean
If his status ain't hood
I ain't checkin' for him
Betta be street if he looking at me
I need a soldier
That ain't scared to stand up for me
Gotta know to get dough
And he betta be street

Street? Really? Beyoncé, your dad had a six figure salary before he managed your career. Kelly? You lived with them. You've been hanging out with Jigga too long if this is what's rubbing off on you. You're popular, beautiful, and the music's already made you wealthy; you don't need to pretend to be anything to sell records. Maybe it's not like that, though. I can almost hear the resignment in Beyoncé's voice. "Street?" she says to the producer. "Really? Fine, I'll do it. But not that part." She even throws Michelle a bone with a verse of her own. "Here, honey. You need this more than I do." I guess some people need to pretend now and again, even if it's just that people care about them.

Cool should be casual, almost effortless. You don't need the attention or the gift bags, but fuck yeah, you'll take them. It would be rude not to. Maybe you'll just toss it in the corner, or something. I don't know, and that's what makes it cool: the mystery, the sense that it doesn't make a difference what I think. Think James Dean or Prince, guys that just ooze whatever it is. You just know that when Prince goes home at night to his purple house (have you seen the pictures? It rocks!), he's still Prince, and that's the difference.

A faint tingling

2006-04-07T00:58:00.000-06:00

Back in January I, in a rare time of care for my future, applied for the university's Psychology Internship program, wherein I would work for 12-16 months in the field, gaining what I can only imagine is valuable experience and a juicy centre to call my very own. I got conditionally accepted, which basically meant that I was in the program, assuming I was actually employable. And after a couple good interviews yielded poor results, that was starting to look less and less likely, and as I am wont to do, I started getting anxious and nervous. After all, if I can't even be a probation officer, how can I do something more clinical? Should I just give up right now and get a BEd? I don't even own a rumpled sportscoat.

Thank God that's not going to happen for another year at least. Today I got a call from Kimberly in Alberta Hospital's human resources department saying what basically amounts to a successful conning of three distinguished professionals into thinking I'm actually the best person for this job. That in itself is impressive. I mean, I work at a grocery store, and I somehow translated that into valuable skills. With psychology. With sex offenders. Wow. Moreover, maybe I'll no longer feel out of place with some of my friends; the one in grad school with grants, the one finishing up nursing programs, the one who's the campus Chief Returning Officer or even just the ones living on their own. It actually feels like I'm doing something, that I'm stepping forward.

And you know, that feels pretty good.

How come you taste so good?

2006-03-13T14:41:00.000-07:00

One of my Australian friends, likely after getting sick of all my music recommendations, decided to shut me up by offering me a column on the website of the student group he's part of, Club Mac. Understandably, my first concern was the column name:

James: Also, I need a snappy name for this column. Something distinctly canadian, yet oddly sexual
Phanatic: Gnomey's Gmusic :D
James: I know! MAPLE SUGAR
Phanatic: Hahahahaha! :D That's gold

I am talking Papal levels

2006-03-01T23:57:00.000-07:00

As you all know, I love music. It probably does not surprise you then that one of my favourite times of the year is around the new year. At this time all the year-end music lists come out, from Pitchfork's to John Allison's. And every year a month or two later, I make mine. It's not that I don't love the music or want to introduce people to something new, it's simply due to disdain. And not for you, dear reader; for topicality. Late December positively reeks of it, as does most of January. In order for a review to be truly timeless, it has to be separated from timeliness. That is why, two months to the day past punctuality, I present to you my top 20 albums of last year.

20. Buck 65 - Secret House Against the World: After 2003's Juno-winning breakout album Talkin' Honky Blues, Buck returned this last year with a new direction altogether. With Secret House, he moves away from the folky hip-hop into a more freewheeling, jazz-based territory. The result is one of his most challenging but rewarding albums to date. Key track: Devil's Eyes
19. Deerhoof - The Runners Four: San Fransisco's Deerhoof are exuberant, challenging and tremendously weird. Even this, their most straight-forward guitar rock album to date, is still at times a difficult listen. Given some time, however, the quirks and deconstruction really start to work for the band and the listener. Key track: Siriustar
18. Bruce Springsteen - Devils & Dust: This is Springsteen's first album sans-E-Street Band since 1995, and he takes it in very much the same character-based direction as his other solo albums. But whereas The Ghost of Tom Joad was alternately bitter and compassionate, Devils & Dust follows in Nebraska's footsteps more: weary, broken and hoping for just a little bit of grace. One of his best. Key track: Devils + Dust
17. Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy - Will Sheff's country-tinged indie rock is brooding, literate and occasonally full of explosive energy. Emotional and superb. Key track: Black
16. Explosions in the Sky - The Rescue (Travel in Constants Vol. 21): Sweeping, grand, intricate. Texas' Explosions in the Sky make instrumental rock in the way of bands like Mogwai, but with a softer and more sprawling sound compared to Mogwai's harder edge. The Rescue is out of print, but more than worth the effort it will take to find a copy of it online. This is the soundtrack to life-altering events. Key track: Day 4
15. Beck - Guero: Beck has always hopped between genres, from the spazzed-out fusion of Mellow Gold and Odelay to the lo-fi folk and country of Outations and Sea Change to the late night funk of Midnite Vultures. If Guero is Beck's least surprising album, it's because it's his most expansive. Whereas he has previously fused genres on his album, here he fuses those albums together. "Black Tambourine" blares fuzzy energy, while "Qué Onda Guero" is a throwback to his childhood and its Latin music influences and "Missing" is a tropicalia-influenced track that would be comfortable on Midnite Vultures or Mutations. Expansive and intriguing. Key track: Girl
14. Paul McCartney - Chaos and Creation in the Backyard: On his latest album, Paul McCartney plays it like it's 1970; much like that year's eponymous album, he plays virtually all the instruments on it, and it is perhaps his best album since. Producer Nigel Godrich pushes McCartney to try new things and the resulting album shines with it. Key track: the brooding Riding to Vanity Fair, one of his darkest songs to date.
13. Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Jacksonville City Nights: Adams' second release of the year with new band The Cardinals exchanges the jammy folk rock of Cold Roses for more traditional country. He channels the music of his youth in North Carolina, and he comes off more comfortable and at home than he's been in years. Key track: The End
12. Sarah Harmer - I'm A Mountain: After an acoustic tour in support of preserving the Niagara Escarpment for PERL, Harmer released an album of like-minded acoustic music in the vein of bluegrass and folk. It's her most energetic and emotionally resonant album yet, buzzing with the sun, showers, soil and seed of her home. Key track: The Escarpment Blues
11. Spoon - Gimme Fiction: Britt Daniels makes exciting, idiosyncratic indie pop music. By using a piano instead of rhythm guitar, his music is more fresh and entertaining than most out there. I fell asleep listening to this album the afternoon I bought it, and I haven't slept as well since. This is how good Spoon is. Key track: The Beast and Dragon, Adored

10. The National - Alligator: 2005 was The National's breakout year as they rode on the back of this album. Matt Berninger's bleary, depressed tales are perfectly suited for sleepless New York nights, and his baritone vocals mesh perfectly with the country-tinged alt rock of the rest of the band. Since Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers, Berninger's lyrics have gotten more cryptic and subtle, just one way the band has gotten better. Key track: Daughters of the Soho Riots

9. Wilco - Kicking Television: Live in Chicago: Live albums are often trivialized by essentially being greatest hits packages in lieu of a real release, but Kicking Television is as vital as almost anything else the band has done. Tracks from 2004's release A Ghost is Born are warmer and less sterile than the studio originals, and older pre-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot songs are updated with the band's more current sound and unified with newer material. This is a great introduction to the band for newcomers, but a valuable contribution to a fan's collection. Key track: Misunderstood

8. Iron & Wine - Woman King: Sam Beam's music has always been lo-fi, woozy and most of all, hushed. But if last year's Our Endless Numbered Days was a small step forward, Woman King is a leap. It utilizes Days' full band arrangements, but this time plugged in. Beam's new usage of electric instrumentation provides new horizons for the band's music, crackling with newfound energy. This EP belongs to a messed-up relationship from last year, and for a long time after it ended I couldn't listen to the album; it was too personal, too painful. This is Iron & Wine's strength, to become your own soundtrack. Key track: Evening on the Ground (Lilith's Song)

7. My Morning Jacket - Z: My Morning Jacket's sound has always been grand, with Jim James' voice echoing through the landscape of guitars and reverb. With Z the band has departed from this sound partially, in favour of a more diverse, crystallized sound. They also moved studios, from the abandoned grain silo their previous efforts were recorded in to a professional modern studio. The result is an album more ambitious than the spacey country-soaked rock of their older albums, and much more varied. "Gideon" soars with Who-esque guitars, while "Off the Record" finds a reggae groove and album closer "Dondante" is the closest to the older My Morning Jacket, with James' high falsetto, driving rhythm and elusive guitars. For all the variety, Z still feels like a cohesive album, and only helps My Morning Jacket's growing reputation as the American Radiohead. Key track: Gideon

6. Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Cold Roses: Around New Year's 2004, word started to get out that Ryan Adams had not only recovered from breaking his arm onstage in Liverpool earlier that year, but was readying new releases for 2005. Soon, it became known that he was preparing three. The first of these, Cold Roses, was perhaps his best of the year. It's a double album, but largely avoids the pretension that phrase evokes. More than that, Cold Roses finds Adams at his songwriting finest, full of longing and women you didn't do right by but didn't deserve anyway. The Cardinals add an easy, worn-in feel Adams hasn't had since his 2000 debut Heartbreaker. The music has an airy, Grateful Dead feel that's suited for live performance and hazy summer afternoons. Key track: Meadowlake Street

5. Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene: I have something to admit: I really didn't like You Forgot It In People that much. Something about Broken Social Scene's breakout second album just didn't connect with me. Yeah, the musicianship was there, but the music just didn't strike me as being that special. It was so polished, so... bland. But with their latest album, Broken Social Scene have really hooked me. The same guitar-based pop song cores are there, but the mixing is muddier, the hooks more elusive and the music that much hazier. It's a more difficult album, but in the end that makes it far greater. Album closer "It's All Gonna Break" is an incredible glimpse at the anxiety, excitement and pressure of the band's expanding popularity, a fitting end to an album that can only increase the band's fame. Key track: It's All Gonna Break

4. Sigur Rós - Takk...: After their album ( ) failed to garner as much critical acclaim as Ágætis Byrjun, the pressure was on for Sigur Rós to regain their form, and Takk... does just that. Whereas Ágætis Byrjun was ambient and lulling, the melodies on Takk... are more forceful, the crescendos are deeper and the album truly rocks out, something the band has never really done before. Sigur Rós uses more piano and horns here to provide something new to the listener, with tracks "Glósóli" and "Hoppípolla" showing something more. Lyrically, singer Jónsi Birgisson abandoning his made-up language of Hopelandish for the first time in favour of his native Icelandic, which lends the songs, folklorish tales of magic and children, even more whimsy. Takk... succeeds moreso than the band's other albums because it retains their strengths while still expanding their musical horizons. Key track: Glósóli

3. Wolf Parade - Apologies to Queen Mary: Victoria's Wolf Parade arrived last year amidst tonnes of buzz, having ties to the Arcade Fire and been discovered by Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock, who produced the album. But eyes on the prize, kids, the buzz isn't important: the music is. Apologies to Queen Mary is a reference to a passenger liner long part of musical history, having played host to Led Zeppelin, Guns N' Roses and The Sex Pistols. Only Wolf Parade, however, have the dishonour of being kicked off the boat, having tried to channel the spirit of Winston Churchill in the ballroom named after him, causing significant damage to the ship in the process. This fiery, destructive energy permeates every moment of Apologies to Queen Mary. Twin songwriters and vocalists Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug lend every song a manic, shizophrenic energy, with shuffling, off-kilter beats and jagged guitars. The highlight of the album is "I'll Believe in Anything," a frenzied plea for romance that culminates in a full minute-long apex, sustaining the energy throughout the song. By the time it has ended, Wolf Parade have earned our attention and our praise. This is spazz-pop at its finest. Key track: I'll Believe in Anything

2. Low - The Great Destroyer: "You better just stand back, I could turn on you so fast." It doesn't come until almost halfway through The Great Destroyer, but this is all the warning Low gives us. Duluth, Minnesota's chosen children have long been known as one of the driving forces behind the slowcore musical movement, with their minimalist compositions and slower-than-slow tempos. It's been their style for over a decade, which is why The Great Destroyer took fans by such surprise upon its release. It actually has the audacity to rock. The tempos are still slow, but whereas gaps in older songs were filled with silent tension, songs like opener "Monkey" grind along with feedback. Drummer Mimi Parker's traditional setup is comprised of just a snare and a high-hat, but now she utilizes a full kit, toms and all. "When I Go Deaf" encompasses the band's stylistic change, veering halfway through from a subdued, acoustic track into a squealing, hissing pool of guitar feedback. The image of Time the Great Destroyer comes up throughout the album, and when album closer "Walk Into the Sea" finally closes, Low come back to the listener. "But when it finally takes us over," they sing, "I hope we float away together." Key track: When I Go Deaf

1. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois: But without a doubt, one album stood above them all last year. It was everywhere, garnering praise from all corners of the business. Sufjan Stevens' second installment in the 50 States Project, Illinois, is ambitious and grandiose, but always welcoming. Maybe it's the sing-along choruses, or the sheer scope of the research of this peal to Michigan's neighbor. Or maybe it's the universal nature of the song subjects. Oh, I know. It's the xylophone. Whatever it is, Illinois is grand without being pompous, ambitious without overreaching and exuberant but still intimate. There's something here for everybody, from the airiness of "Concerning the UFO Sighting near Highland, Illinois," the heartfelt pain of "Chicago" and "Casimir Pulaski Day," the familial rehabilitation in "Decatur," or the chilling ode to our secrets in "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." Give it a chance, it'll suck you in. I barely go a week without listening to it, and as early as last night I was recommending it to somebody. That's its power. Key track: Chicago

And that's it, my summary of the best albums of last year, 100% infallible. Infallible.

Ironic

2006-02-21T12:09:00.000-07:00

Watching former supermodel Tyra Banks lecture a woman on selling her body.

D to the O

2006-01-23T01:24:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while, I have a dorkier weekend than usual.

(a) On such an occasion, I might forego even considering a night out with people at the bar in favour of a quiet night at a friend's house watching DVDs. This week, it was at Ted's, and it was time again for the one with a degree in film studies to show me something new. The first was Gatchaman, a decades old anime show he enjoyed as a kid back when my aunt was still babysitting him. After that, it was Woody Allen. We started it off with Sleeper, and ended it with Bananas. Good fun, especially when I haven't enjoyed good slapstick in quite a while.

(b) It's also inevitible that I'll stay up late anyway, reading Rolling Stone and playing Mariokart until 4:30 in the morning.

(c) I'll sleep in. But to any time you'd generally call sleeping in. Just until 9, then doze until 11.

(d) I'll lounge for a while, checking the internet and reading, until New Scandinavian Cooking is on. They don't seem to be showing it anymore. You missed out.

(e) Staying at home and catching up on work isn't dorky, but this weekend I went over to Michael's house and we baked cookies while playing Mariokart wirelessly. He shows me the harmony in his new cover of Radiohead's "Subterranean Homesick Alien" and I play right-handed chords on his guitar. He plays The Beatles' "Something" on his baritone ukelele. I drive him and Shani somewhere on my way home.

(f) Saturday night at last! Time to go out, right? Nope. I've got to work tomorrow morning, and I went out last weekend anyway. It's time to listen to Sonic Youth and try to convince people that they really are that awesome. Go buy Sonic Nurse, it's fantastic. Believe me this time.

(g) Sunday doesn't count. I just listen to more Sonic Youth and gossip about characters on Grey's Anatomy anyway.

Just kidding. I do this every week.