| Things I dislike |
[Dec. 22nd, 2009|11:46 am] |
Been a long time since my last post. Other than losing and gaining a job, plus trips to Vail, Denver and Seattle/Vancouver, I can't say that it's been super-eventful, for better or worse. But I'll probably get to my life events in due time.
There have been things that have been bugging me for a while so I thought I'd get it off my chest before the new year rolls around. Some of them you could call pet peeves, but in general, they're things that I don't like or can't understand. While you may disagree, I feel justified. So without further ado, the Top 8 things that are currently bothering me (8 since I'm Chinese):
8) Anonymous Posting/Commenting
If you're going to leave a comment (like you're about to do so below), the least you can do is leave your name. It's cowardly to say something and not reveal who you are. Unless you're Deep Throat and you're talking about Nixon/Watergate. And I know you're not.
7) "Cheers"
I dislike the use of this word in any other sense than to toast a drink. I can tolerate if you're dealing with Euros or Aussies who use it all the time. I had a business school friend email me with the signature "cheers, name." Why would you do that???
6) "Touch Base"
I realize a lot of these things I dislike will be related to words/terminology, but I feel the need to expound on it. Unless we're at my workplace, "touching base" should NEVER be used unless we're playing some game that requires circling bases, or we're getting busy at the moment. No. Other. Time. I had a friend who said "let's touch base" in terms of figuring out when we wanted to meet up for lunch. You couldn't just say "call me later???" Ugh.
5) "Could care less"
It's "couldn't care less." Do you even hear what you're saying? If you "could care less," why don't you?
4) Bikram Yoga
I don't know too much about this, whether it's a cultural/religous/etc. thing so I don't mean to disrespect on that end. But doing yoga in extreme conditions? Are you kidding me???
I'm not hating on yoga. Yoga is a great exercise. But the last time I did any sort of exercise under Bikram Yoga conditions, I almost passed the f*** out. I recall going on Facebook and seeing someone's status which read "Went to Bikram yoga today. Didn't throw up or pass out. Yay!" I don't know about you, but passing out and vomiting are not my expectations when exercising.
Those who have done it claim that it feels really good after you finish. But isn't that really enjoyment through negative reinforcement? I could torture you and you'd feel better after it was over too. For that matter, why don't you just run 5 miles then? I'm sure you'd feel better after that too.
And more seriously:
*Heat exhaustion symptoms include dizziness, muscle weakness, and nausea or vomiting.
*Heat stroke is a life-threatening condition with symptoms of high body temperature, rapid pulse, difficulty breathing, confusion.
Your body uses sweating to regulate your body temperature. Why would you subject yourself to extreme heat while doing something that also makes you hot? This makes no sense to me whatsoever.
For those who do Bikram, I challenge you to tell me how it helps you.
3) Vampires
This is the most ridiculous trend of all time. All this Twilight and True Blood stuff... they're not vampires!
Vampire definition:
-They suck your blood
-They turn into bats
-They can't stand sunlight
Vampires don't sparkle!!! And when they get the chance, they will eat your ass! I don't give a rats ass if you say that doesn't hold true. This is what we're raised on. You can't change the rules so that you can sell books and make movies and TV shows. It's like trying to say Santa has dredlocks and employs oompa loompas to make toys in a hut in Jamaica. And then selling a bunch of Jamaican flags and dredlock wigs during Christmas in order to capitalize on it.
Do people not see the real push behind this whole thing? As I was telling some of my friends, all you have to do to make anything marketable is to make it sexy. If it wasn't Robert Pattinson in Twilight but some nerdy kid (maybe Michael Cera?), I doubt the whole series would have the same appeal.
One day, I'm going to write a book about zombies or mummies. Except they will be super sexy. They will be the sexiest thing you will have ever read or seen in your life. It will be a trilogy both in book and movie form. I will cast Robert Pattinson, Megan Fox and whoever else people find sexy at the time. The zombies will still eat brains, but they'll refrain because they're good at heart (or what's left of it). And they're sexy. And they smell like potpourri and have rainbows shooting out of their ass.
Ugh, this whole thing makes me want to vomit.
2) New Age Combination Words
I hate hate hate hate this. I took a "History of the English Language" course during undergrad (don't ask why). There is etymology behind the words we currently use now, from their roots from Germanic or Romance languages. Words evolved over time, and that was a beautiful thing. Now you have half-wits smashing words together brute-force style because they're not educated enough to use some of the millions of words out there (or are too lazy to pick up a thesaurus).
If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's a sampling:
Ginormous - What is this, giant + enormous? Gigantic + enormous? One friend of mine was talking about the hierarchy of size (i.e. big < giant < huge < enormous) so giant + enormous is even bigger!!! WTF? What happened to colossal, gargantuan, titanic, monstrous, etc.? Why don't we mash all of the words together to make a super-awesome word that means the biggest thing EVER!!!
Guesstimate - This is the worst word ever. There is no such thing as a guesstimate. It's either a guess or an estimate. Is it a shitty estimate? Then it's a guess. Did you put some time into guessing? Than it's an estimate. IT'S. NOT. BOTH. It's like saying you dug half a hole. Either you did or you didn't. (Karen told me that the CFO she works for uses "guesstimate," which automatically makes him the worst CFO ever.)
Chillax - (This is the sound of me throwing up.)
I know some of you out there use these words so I'm not saying you need to stop, nor am I condemning you for the use. It's a trendy thing and I can see that it might be fun to say. But I just personally detest the creation of these words. While I can understand a colloquial use of these words as exaggeration, they should never, ever, in a million years be used in any business context (meetings, presentations, etc.). EVER. If I interview someone for a job and they say "ginormous" to me, they are done. Good luck finding a job.
1) "Meh"
This is by far and away the worst word ever. (Even worse than guesstimate above.) I've talked to some who have disputed the use and meaning of the word, but here's what it means to me. Meh is similar to "whatever." If someone says "the weather isn't too bad today" and you say "meh," you're basically saying that you don't care. Either you don't care for the weather or you don't care for the person, overall you just don't care. But think about how rude that is. Someone says something to you and you say "whatever?" But it's worse than "whatever" because you've cut it down by 2 syllables!!! Now you really don't give a shit.
Several years ago, I met someone and had a conversation with him. It was your generic get to know you conversation and I was trying to make small talk. In response to something I said to him, he said "Meh." I almost lost it. I was this close to choking him. Really, I take time out of my life to talk to you and this is how you dismiss it? It's fine to disagree, but even "whatever" or "I don't care" shows more courtesy than "Meh." I think the usage like "I'm feeling meh" is fine. Just don't direct it towards me.
Now if you're reading this blog, I know you're a friend so I don't mean to offend (hey that rhymes). But we all have quirky things about us and these are mine. I'm sure I do things that make you want to beat me with your shoe. So tell me about it in the comments below! (Don't forget to sign your name.) |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 20th, 2009|12:19 pm] |
last night after my work party, i went with a friend to her neighbor's annual christmas party. this guy had owned 2 19th century homes that he knocked the wall between down. he lived by himself i think and was obsessed (seemingly in a good way) with christmas. my friend had mentioned to him something about some ornament that she saw and he got very excited. he said "I WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING...ABOUT CHRISTMAS." all the rooms were elaborately decorated, and he had maybe $2000 worth of tiny Niemann-Marcus mice? Apparently when this dude has a christmas party, he puts on a Father Christmas outfit with a robe and a beard and gives everyone weird goody bag things that are filled with tiny weird ornaments. He had a 20 foot tall tree with glass ornaments from the 1800's, and also lightweight babyheads.
the babyheads of christmas. |
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| I had this weird dream. |
[Dec. 18th, 2009|06:35 pm] |
I was in this play. There was this big black stage but everything I did was in this little white box. And I was playing this crazy musician guy, and even though I didn't know wtf I was doing there was no one else on stage and I just had to keep talking and talking and talking.
And the freakiest part was that the crazy musician guy was actually in the audience, just watching me. And, like, 15 of his family members were there.
And even though it was a non-smoking venue the crazy musician guy was chain-smoking menthols, so even though I couldn't really see the audience because of the light I could always see this constant plume of smoke. Like that's how I knew he was out there.
.oh fuck. |
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| the alphabet of consciousness |
[Dec. 17th, 2009|10:14 am] |
My Brain on My Mind -
The ABCs of the thrumming, plastic mystery that allows us to think, feel, and remember, by Pricilla Long.
Excerpt, letter E:
—E—
Easy Problem. Philosopher’s lingo for the problem in neuroscience of comprehending the neuronal correlates of consciousness. When you see red, what exactly are your neurons doing? When you remember your grandfather’s face, what are your neurons doing? It may be difficult to parse the answer but in principle we can do it. It’s easy. The Hard Problem is the mystery of subjective experience. When long light waves stimulate our neural pathways, why do we experience the color red? And what survival benefit caused our brains to develop, through eons of evolution, an ability to experience a “sense of self,” a self able to see itself as special or heroic or smart or not so smart—as, on occasion, a complete failure? |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 15th, 2009|06:32 pm] |
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I would do that 2009 meme but it hasn't even been my birthday yet and I'm gonna try and cram in a couple more one night stands heh heh heh. |
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| Year Round-up #1: Wild Beasts |
[Dec. 11th, 2009|06:47 pm] |
Wild Beasts - Two Dancers (Domino)
It took me a long time to come around to Wild Beasts. Sometime in 2008 an old friend recommended Limbo, Panto, Wild Beasts' first album. I listened to it once and while I enjoyed it, I didn't find myself wanting to hear it again despite a few excellent songs like "The Devil's Crayon". Despite not immediately wowing me, it did leave me asking a lot of questions because I at least recognized that I'd never heard a band that sounded quite like them. The most obviously strange and instantly noticeable trait is the band's flamboyant use of vibrato and falsetto vocals, which much ado is still being made about today. Normally I'm turned off by over-the-top, highly affected vocals (Dirty Projectors, anyone?) and the fact that I didn't immediately hate their singing was one of the things that eventually drew me back to the band. The vocals are highly dramatic and exaggerated, but contrary to what every writer in the world seems to think, the band is not "theatrical". Quite the opposite and in true British spirit, Wild Beasts' music is unusually reserved and restrained; the voices sound less like a cry for attention than a completely natural realization of Hayden Thorpe and Tom Fleming's voices.
It wasn't right away that I realized this, and it wasn't until I saw the band live at SXSW last March that I was finally drawn into their world, resulting in a full on obsession, culminating with the release of Two Dancers in September. Hearing them live enabled me to fully hear the cleverness and subtle intricacies of their musical material. In particular, Wild Beasts write really striking bass parts, often utilizing the higher register of the instrument as well as finger picking techniques. With this, the bass blends beautifully with the other instruments, each song usually utilizing a small number of loops/grooves. I hesitate to namecheck the Talking Heads because it's done so much, but while Wild Beasts don't sound a thing like Talking Heads, they're one of the only bands I've ever heard that so effectively utilizes "groove" without resorting to dance-rock clichés usually associated with syncopated rhythms and four-on-the-floor bass drum. The engrossing musical material combined with Thorpe and Fleming's earnest yet often cheeky lyrics and singing makes for a band that is (to embrace yet another cliché) familiar yet not quite like anything I've heard before. Certainly there are potential influences (Tears for Fears, Eyeless In Gaza, possibly even Radiohead), but to say there's a clear influence from any single band would be doing them a great disservice.
Where Limbo, Panto is sometimes bogged down by a lack of energy and consistency in certain songs, Two Dancers feels remarkably unified. In their words, "Limbo, Panto was Wild Beasts the ugly duckling. Two Dancers is Wild Beasts the beautiful swan." From start to finish, Two Dancers feels like much of a statement and a cohesively conceived and executed vision. The songs are beautifully balanced and structured, and perhaps the album's strongest point, the audio production is immaculate. In an era where audio production has become increasingly slick and hyperreal, the quality of sounds on Two Dancers is absolutely impeccable, presented in amazing fullness and detail without sounding the slightest bit overproduced. Through and through, it is a beautifully made album and a more complete, concise expression of a unique approach to rock music than anything else I've heard in quite a long time.
And on that note, I'm going to eat dinner! Hope some people have enjoyed the list. I'm gonna do a decade wrapup before I retire the ol' livejournal for good.
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2. Ryan Driver - Feeler of Pure Joy
3. Mama Rosin - Brule Lentement
4. Dark Meat - Truce Opium
5. Ida Maria - Fortress Round My Heart
6. Maher Shalal Hash Baz - C'est La Dernièr Chanson
7. Jeremy Enigk - OK Bear
8. Vic Chesnutt - At the Cut
9. Sunset - Gold Dissolves to Gray
10. Food - Food |
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| Year Round-up #2: Ryan Driver |
[Dec. 10th, 2009|06:59 pm] |
2. Ryan Driver - Feeler of Pure Joy (Fire)
Multi-instrumentalist Ryan Driver is a pretty ubiquitous Toronto musician. I first heard of him as a member of Alex Lukashevsky's Deep Dark United and my old friend Kurt Newman let me borrow a CD he made with Ryan Driver under the name Golden Melody Awards. Since then it seems everywhere I look into interesting/adventurous music in Toronto, be it rock, folk, or experimental/improvised, Ryan Driver's name is constantly popping up. I think the album I listened to more than anything else in 2009 was The Silt's album Cat's Peak (released in a tiny edition in 2007 and again by Fire in 2008 but I didn't hear it until 2009), Driver's unusual country/rock/folk band along with Marcus Quin and Doug Tielli. Feeler of Pure Joy isn't entirely different from Cat's Peak, though it is much less full band-oriented than The Silt's music.
It seems my list this year features way less singer/songwriter or folk music than in past years, despite it being one of my favorite genres. I'm particularly into this kind of music because in general all folk singers are using the same chords and instruments, so the interest for me lies in the way the music highlights each individual songwriter's particular talents, quirks, and characteristics. As folk music goes, Feeler of Pure Joy is literally exactly what I'm looking for in every way possible. Driver's voice is strong and striking but also sounds relaxed and natural. While he can sometimes sound a lot like early Palace Brothers on some songs by The Silt (likely not intentional but more because Driver's voice is just somewhat similar in timbre), the songwriting, arranging, and lyrical content are uniquely his own.
Aside from just being a brilliantly composed set of songs, Feeler of Pure Joy's strongest asset is Driver's ability to integrate elements from experimental and improvised music seamlessly with his acoustic guitar and singing. "Time and Trouble" blends Driver's occasional use of falsetto (also heard on the Neil Young-ish "Spinning Towers") with semi-freeform guitar playing, overdubbed and sometimes discretely digitally edited. "When Were You In Mexico?" is a slow, droning song with outstanding hurdy gurdy playing by Martin Arnold. The title track "Feeler of Pure Joy" has a long synthesizer break before going into its beautiful coda, finishing out the album. Finally, my favorite song "That's Which Way the Water Falls" features some adept, nimble guitar playing along with clever lyrics, and some absolutely brilliant arranging of double bass and surprisingly tasteful and unusual percussion.
It is, quite simply, an amazing group of songs. The Toronto music scene seems to be full of people like Driver (Alex Lukashevsky, Eric Chenaux, Martin Arnold... just to name a few) yet for one reason or another none of their projects have received the attention they deserve. Feeler of Pure Joy was originally released in 2008 on Chenaux's Rat-Drifting and, thankfully, given a wider (but still seemingly under the radar) release in 2009 by UK's Fire Records. It's a stunning album that any fan of adventurous folk music needs to hear.
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3. Mama Rosin - Brule Lentement
4. Dark Meat - Truce Opium
5. Ida Maria - Fortress Round My Heart
6. Maher Shalal Hash Baz - C'est La Dernièr Chanson
7. Jeremy Enigk - OK Bear
8. Vic Chesnutt - At the Cut
9. Sunset - Gold Dissolves to Gray
10. Food - Food |
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| Mama Rosin addendum |
[Dec. 9th, 2009|11:53 pm] |
I gotta post these videos from Brule Lentement, too because they rule.
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| Year Round-up #3: Mama Rosin |
[Dec. 9th, 2009|11:18 pm] |
3. Mama Rosin – Brule Lentement (Voodoo Rhythm)
In preparation for writing this I’ve been trying to remember when and why I became interested in Cajun music, and oddly I can’t seem to figure it out but I know it was sometime in the last five years. Admittedly, I’m somewhat of an armchair enthusiast but I really enjoy Cajun music, especially the less blues-influenced (i.e. Zydeco) and more traditional side of things. As Michael Pisaro said recently in his Wandelweiser retrospective, I’ve always been attracted to music that is accused of “everything sounding the same” and this is exactly what attracted me to Cajun music, along with the style’s inherent energy and joy.
Typically, so-called “crossover” music that attempts to merge divergent genres leaves a bad taste in my mouth as it so often results in someone pillaging a traditional or indigenous style of music as a kind of exoticism or musical colonization. Every so often, however, a group like Mama Rosin comes along who takes two styles (in this case traditional Cajun/Zydeco and punk/rock n roll) and melds them in a way that makes sense and utilizes the best aspects of both kinds of music. Ever since I first heard Mama Rosin’s debut in 2008 I’ve been continually amazed that a band from Switzerland could sound so sincere and authentic while still succeeding in making old music seem new (many of their songs are Cajun standards like “Pine Grove Blues” and “Valse Criminelle”).
Their first album Tu As Perdu Ton Chemin is a gritty, bare-bones romp that often sounds like it could have been recorded on a boom box. It’s, as always, a really fun an exuberant album but the band really came into their own on their 2nd album, 2009’s Brule Lentement (“Slow Burn”). From the outset on “Où est passé E.C Lenoir?“ (“Searching for E.C. Lenoir”, a nod to Cajun legends the Carriere Brothers) it’s immediately clear that Brule Lentement is a more serious, intense, and well-made affair. The recording quality is of a higher fidelity but maintains, and even heightens the intensity. Over the course of 13 songs Mama Rosin give us an endlessly exciting, fun, and even innovative album within the confines of a highly specific yet deceptively multi-faceted genre and they’ve quickly become one of my favorite bands in the world. I challenge anyone to listen to Brule Lentement and not immediately feel happier; in the true spirit of New Orleans, it’s party music in the best sense of the word possible.
In keeping with the idea of high energy, since releasing Brule Lentement back in February they’ve already put yet another album, the brand new Black Robert. The new album is more low-key and mostly acoustic affair, but shows a band committed to breathing new life into a very old genre (and honestly, could easily have a place in this top 10 list, as well). It’s exactly what Cajun music needs, both reviving the old ways and updating them for today in a way that’s respectful and ultimately celebratory of an amazing and unique culture. I just never would have guessed this would come from Switzerland rather than New Orleans.
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4. Dark Meat - Truce Opium
5. Ida Maria - Fortress Round My Heart
6. Maher Shalal Hash Baz - C'est La Dernièr Chanson
7. Jeremy Enigk - OK Bear
8. Vic Chesnutt - At the Cut
9. Sunset - Gold Dissolves to Gray
10. Food - Food |
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