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Arts education plus prescription painkillers

Jan 20th, 2010
by Gillian.
1 comment

(Strange things happen when you combine a BA with codeine-like substances.)

Man, I usually don’t need a news article to make me feel like an inbred mutant, though up until reading it I had considered my grey-blue eyes to be rather nice and that despite being nearsighted were my best attributes when my tits aren’t visible. But maybe now I’m supposed to recogize them as the aberration they are and feel ashamed.

With this knowledge and forgetting myself for a minute I have a sudden desire to reexamine the Oedipus tragedy, for did he not, upon discovering that his wife was also Mumsy, gouge out his eyes with her dress pins? I bet his eyes were blue, while he still had them anyways.

Moving to other body parts, I’ve also been watching Dumbo again and seeing it as an expose on race relations in the US. I’m not talking about the representation of the crows (that’s obvious!), but of Dumbo himself. My theory is that the backstory has Mrs. Jumbo getting drunk one night (seems to be common enough at that circus:

) and waking up the next morning next to an African elephant who wasn’t her husband (or, that’s what she told Mr. Jumbo later). And lo and behond, 22 months later the stork brings her a baby elephant with big African elephant ears, and she’s like, how’d that get there? And then she’s shamed by her peers and Jumbo Jr’s taken away from her. And he only redeems himself in society by becoming a magic negro elephant who can fly. So really this whole story is just a parable about the unacceptance of mixed-race relationships and the mistreatment of “half-breed” children in a 20th century dual-race society. Interestingly, though, none of the other elephants ever argued that he wasn’t born in the US.

Isn’t it a shame I didn’t do arts grad school?

Music Suggestions

Jan 11th, 2010
by Gillian.
9 comments

I gots some.

Yeasayer is one of my favourite bands, making indie rock with a world music vibe and a healthy emphasis on percussion. I’ve probably mentioned them before, but now they’ve got a new album coming out and I totally didn’t get a leaked copy and listen to it and think it is awesome. Nope.

Here’s the video from their first single, “Ambling Alp” (which you can download for free from the band’s website here). Sadly I couldn’t find a version on Youtube where the boobies weren’t blurred out. Shame.

It’s not what they normally do, but this album has a love song, even. Feel free to ignore the fan-made video:

I just discovered that “Odd Blood” doesn’t come out until next month, so, um, if you enjoyed these songs I hope you don’t mind waiting!

I know absolutely nothing about The Automatic but I found this video on an mp3 blog a while back. I can’t quite decide if it turns me on or off, and whether or not I want to eat meat ever again. The song is quite catchy, though it’s maybe too radio-friendly for my eclectic taste and may be relegated to my workout mixtape.

Shearwater‘s got a new album coming out, the first single being “Castaways” (no official video yet, just a static image):

When people ask me to recommend relaxing music I usually mention these guys, because the lead singer could sing me to sleep every night and make my life complete. I don’t normally like concert recordings but often go back to the one they did for NPR’s All Songs Considered. Shearwater was founded by two dudes who left Okkervil River to do quieter songs, so if you’re a fan of the latter you might like them too.

You can get “Castaways” for free at their label’s website, and their album “The Golden Archipelago” is set to be released on February 23. Shit, I really should be recommending albums that are out now, shouldn’t I?

I was going to recommend Freelance Whales, but their album doesn’t drop until late March.

Here we go: Dear Leader‘s album “Stay Epic” came out in September 2009, but I just heard about them recently. Except they don’t seem to have anything on Youtube. Oh well.

Just forget I said anything.

Concert-going in Kelowna

Oct 4th, 2009
by Gillian.
1 comment

Living in a new town much different than and far away from my friends, and working for a company that is a complete 180 from what I’m used to, is continuing to be difficult. Now that it’s not summer anymore, the near-constant sun isn’t enough to keep up my spirits; and I’ve come to realize just how ridiculous it is to not have a car here, even if the commute is 3 km and I live right next door to downtown.

This week, however, I discovered one of the best things to happen from me moving here, and to have picked this apartment building (as if I had a choice, nowhere else would allow cats): I’m 3 blocks from the local indie venue. I’ve been laughing at how I now have little excuse not to see a show, what with it being right there, tickets being $10-15 and the place serves food until about 11. There were 4 concerts this week I would’ve liked to have seen, but what with my having a job and needing to sleep I only made it to half of them.

Last night’s was the Vancouver singer-songwriter Dan Mangan, of whom I’ve been a fan for a couple years after I first heard “Journal of a Narcoleptic”, which according to iTunes is my 3rd most played song since I got my Macbook 2 years ago:

I’d never seen him live, so it was a real treat to catch him at a small, intimate venue like The Habitat and I recommend you check him out should he play in your town. He ended last night’s set (or tried to, before he got heckled into doing an encore) with “Robots”, which is off his new album. He got a few audience members to play percussion and the rest of us to sing along to the chorus at the end, which was a sweet way to end the night. He hasn’t made a video for the song yet, but here’s a fan version:

On Tuesday I was there to check out Grand Archives opening for The Most Serene Republic. I really went for the former band, though I have albums from both groups because I have albums from everyone you’ve never heard of. I felt obliged to buy merchandise because it seemed like stealing to see them both for $13 or whatever I paid for the ticket online. Luckily you can’t have too many band t-shirts (it’s true).

Grand Archives captured my attention instantly with their unison mandolin playing to the first song off their new album (song: “Topsy’s Revenge”; album: “Keep In Mind Frankenstein”), which sadly I can’t link to online but you should check them out if you like quieter stuff a la Iron & Wine. Here’s “Sleepdriving” off of their earlier album:

I’d lazily describe The Most Serene Republic as “chamber pop” because I’m too tired to come up with anything better for this Ontario band with a penchant for lush instrumentation:

I’ve been nagged into doing a music recommendations post so this is what you get for now.

Trippy packaging

Aug 16th, 2009
by Gillian.
No comments yet

My friend Thompson is in the band Splitting Adam, maybe best known for their song in the EA game “Need for Speed – Undercover”. They’re about to release their first full-length album, and here’s a look at its intense CD packaging:

I find this kind of cool, because in my life CDs have become rather archaic; everything I listen to comes out of a computer or iPod, and I tend to buy mp3s online and probably wouldn’t recognize the newer album covers of most of my favourite artists anymore. I applaud anyone trying to bring CD art back into prominence, especially in such an out-there way.

You can read a bit more about the design and see stills of the packaging here, but the gist of it is about

…a fictitious character named Adam and his internal struggle with an audio triggered bipolar disorder. The cover splits Adam to reveal inside his head, a 3D animated hologram which morphs from a passive lamb into an agressive ape. The CD and insert artwork documents Adam’s mental state along with vital statistics and final prognosis.

That’s deep, yo.

Unfortunately I’ve only heard a song or two of theirs previously so I can’t say much about their sound (will have to wait until I get a copy of the album), but Thompson is an awesome musician and I have fond memories of watching him perform at various UBC beer gardens back when we were in music school. I believe he plays guitar and sings backing vocals with these guys, and would ignore me if I were to scream “play El Scorcho!” (perhaps the early 2000′s cover band’s “Free Bird”) at one of his concerts now. Le sigh.

Inappropriate video embedding

Aug 8th, 2009
by Gillian.
3 comments

I just realized it’s been well over a week since I saw any of my friends and I’m jonesing for my own personality to come out (unlike the quiet, shy, polite me that New Job is currently seeing). I miss my friends. I like you so much more now that you’re not available.

Here’s a video I discovered a week or two ago, a cover of Talking Heads’ “This Must Be The Place”, but where the music video is an homage to American Psycho. Miles Fisher does have an uncanny resemblance to Christian Bale in this video, though I haven’t seen the movie (I don’t like horror, gore or chick flicks for that matter, not that it is one but it does star Christian Bale) so I can’t make a comparison there.

Yeah, so, like, don’t watch this if you’re at work, or if there are little kids around, or anyone who’s easily disturbed.

This is my favourite Talking Heads song but I consider it so joyful that combining it with images of sex, violence and 1980s narcissism is really incongruous to me. Well, maybe not on the last point, the song is from 1983. In case you feel the same way I do, here’s the unicorn chaser of the live Talking Heads version:

I heart contemporary dance

Jun 21st, 2009
by Gillian.
4 comments

One thing I look forward to every summer is a new season of So You Think You Can Dance. It’s been TV crack for me ever since I happened to catch an episode in its second season, and I was happy to see that they started making a Canadian version last year. I think what makes the show great is that the dance numbers are only a few minutes long each, meaning that with my ADHD I can actually pay attention the whole time (and with Tivo I can fast-forward through the annoying screams of the judge Mary Murphy).

It seems my favourite genre is contemporary, which is interesting as I didn’t really know it existed until I saw SYTYCD. Mom used to take me to ballets all the time back when I was a kid and she still liked me, but that was all I ever really knew about dance beyond movies like Strictly Ballroom and Dirty Dancing. Neither of which made me want to take up the art more than I wanted a hot boyfriend who was strong enough to lift me. Contemporary dance, however, makes me wish that Mom had put me in dance classes back when I watched ballet and said I wanted to do that; alas!

I was reminded of how much I liked that style last week when I saw this piece choreographed by the Canadian Stacey Tookey, to The Frame’s Falling Slowly.

Here’s the original dance that got me really interested in the show in 2006 (which I blogged about at the time, too):

I think what grabs me about contemporary is how organic and emotive it is; it talks to my mushy inner core. It also talks to my flabby outer core, saying that I really need to hit the gym.

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