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[Tuesday, November 24th, 2009, 7:52 PM] |
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I had an Encore photoshoot today. Then Mark made it into this. I think it's a bit too on the nose. |
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[Saturday, November 14th, 2009, 9:21 PM] |
My favourite Thick of It quote (from the 2007 specials, though the new episode was phenomenal):
"Tomorrow morning, from broadsheets to wipe-rags, I want page one, two and three to be a profile of Tom looking like a fucking political colossus. You know, Tom meeting the pope, Tom at an NHS hospital chatting to little baldy kiddies. I want pages four and five to be a timeline of the last few years of British politics, with me at the centre, looking fucking indespensable and fucking benign. And I want page six to be fucking... ISRAEL OR SOME BULLSHIT, not a fucking DoSAC dipshit LEGACY DISTRACTING COCK-UP."
-Malcolm Tucker |
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[Friday, November 13th, 2009, 9:33 PM] |
Three new things today that increased my coolness in three different ways:
1. On Saturday I found this 80s Montreal compilation record at work and put it on. It turned out to be some fun jangle pop: nothing exciting, but definitely nothing I've heard from Montreal before. My unreasonable passion for Montreal music being what it is, I bought it. This girl came up to me right afterward and asked if she could buy it. She eventually let slip that her turntable rips MP3s, so now we both have the record! Anyway, turns out she runs the "Twee Time" show on Concordia radio, and tonight she said "Thanks to Paul at Encore Records"! No problem, Steph!
2. Apparently Owen's old dealer is actually quite high up on the food chain and only dealt to people he knew personally. I did business with a big time drug lord maybe!
3. I realized just now that I can use my laptop as a second monitor! I've got my stats assignment naggin' me there so I can procrastinate round here! I'm not excited for when the novelty wears off and I realize I have no use for two screens... but I'm enjoying the ride so far! |
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[Sunday, November 8th, 2009, 12:37 AM] |
Found a Heidi Happy CD at Encore today. Really excellent Swiss pop music! She's got a beautiful voice and really goes all out with the instrumentation (listen to Fool and Fulltime Running!). I even gave her the desktop treatment because she's pretty. Then again, I do have a thing for chicks with that accent. |
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[Saturday, November 7th, 2009, 9:28 PM] |
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Watching The Thick of It is pure joy. The show is conflict after conflict until everyone is completely annihilated emotionally. It's twenty-nine minutes of absolute abuse and it couldn't be more fun to take in. |
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[Friday, November 6th, 2009, 1:36 PM] |
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Paul bro you gotta stop falling for lesbians bro |
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[Thursday, October 29th, 2009, 1:07 AM] |
The Great Purge of '09: 35 GB of music wiped from my laptop (but still backed up on an external drive because I'm far too obsessive to actually delete it for real)
Here's what's left:
-Everything I can realistically imagine ever listening to again (the hardest hit were old prog/classic rock and jazz from my naive formative years)
-Everything from this year (I love new music and I like to get a good idea of what's around for my equally obsessive end of the year list)
-Everything from Montreal (I'm nothing if not loyal) |
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[Friday, October 23rd, 2009, 4:35 PM] |
Sorry, 2004 Paul, 2007 Paul and 2008 Paul. 2009 Paul is a fan of Fleetwood Mac. |
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[Monday, October 12th, 2009, 7:33 PM] |
I guess it's unintentionally appropriate that I'm finishing my July doom metal playlist this slowly. |
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[Wednesday, September 30th, 2009, 9:53 PM] |
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I was feeling kinda ratty about something work-related, but Mark just apologized by giving me a slice of watermelon with a happy face carved into it. |
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[Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009, 12:53 AM] |
I had to go to an awful birthday party for a family friend at a cabane à sucre in spring 2007. I asked Matthew to come along and keep me company. The five hours passed in a flash and I was laughing constantly, talking almost only to him the whole time.
Matthew isn't himself anymore. I'm worried I'll never be able to have that type of experience with him ever again.
(I made this post public because it was less rabid than others I've written about the situation.) |
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[Monday, September 21st, 2009, 10:23 AM] |
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just hit 2.3 MB/s download at school. This is what heaven is like. |
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[Friday, September 11th, 2009, 6:23 PM] |
School jitters were a bit delayed this term. |
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[Friday, September 11th, 2009, 10:38 AM] |
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I recently found a workaround for Bell's torrent throttling. I didn't realize it would work on McGill's network as well. I'm downloading at 1 MB/s right now. |
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[Friday, September 4th, 2009, 8:24 PM] |
Einstein On The Beach is a biographical opera by Philip Glass about Albert Einstein. But very little of that sentence is true. It's not really an opera. It barely tells a biographical story. And, at least lyrically, it's almost certainly not about Albert Einstein. Here's what it is:
It's long. It's very long. It's five hours long. Recordings last from 2.5 to 3.5 hours, and are comparable to, as Glass says, a friend on a diet: "it's the same person before and after; there's just a little less of him." So needless to say, listening to it the whole way through requires a certain amount of investment. And it almost certainly doesn't work as background music. Which brings us to...
It's difficult to listen to. When most people think of Philip Glass, they think of his calm, soothing soundtrack work of today. Einstein On The Beach barely resembles that. This is hardcore minimalism, with scores and scores of repetition, shrieking from singers, rapid violin lines, and bizarre synthesizer sounds. It requires almost constant attention, especially if you want to notice the subtle chord progressions, time signature changes, and melodic variations (see? Sounds super fun). And don't think you'll be saved by interesting lyrics either...
There are no lyrics. The singing is divided rather equally between rapid counting and simple gibberish. The poems interspersed throughout are surreal and meaningless, and definitely have little to do with Einstein. Not to say that the piece as a whole does either. It represents a vague overview of the man, with several scenes (a trial, a spaceship, etc.) that seem to correspond somewhat to parts of his life. To further complicate things, Einstein does appear in the opera, but not as a protagonist; rather, as a violinist in the orchestra.
So what's to like about it?
It's sublimely beautiful. It works as a single piece in a way very few other extended works do, especially for one this extended. The many themes brought up are all distinct enough to be individually memorable, but are interrelated to the point of insanity. The arrangements are awe-inspiring, with so many layers it's almost impossible to keep track of them all. Each part is absolutely virtuosic, from the vocals to the violins to the synthesizers. The opera moves through so many moods and emotions with so little apparent musical change: in particular, the violin line that ends it is one of the most melancholic melodies I've ever heard. The whole thing works.
I hate opera. But needless to say, this one is an exception. It's quite simply one of my favourite musical works ever. Take a look for yourself, or if you're feeling more ambitious, a listen. |
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[Wednesday, August 26th, 2009, 2:13 AM] |
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The style is laughable. The whole thing feels like self-parody. You will frequently just sit up and realize how ridiculous it all is. And yet somehow, I think Inglourious Basterds may be the best movie Tarantino's ever made. Do yourself a favour and see if I'm right. |
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[Sunday, August 23rd, 2009, 11:57 PM] |
Being a John Zorn fan is so rewarding. Of the three albums he's released so far this year (barring the new Book of Angels release and all the others he's only contributed to), two are excellent. Dude just announced his fourth, and it's barely September. |
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