big day out 2005 - ie the best concert ive ever been too

12:00 - the donnas
these fiesty little females started the day off with their girly garage rock, which was actually quite impressive, their guitarist is really good (i think i read somewhere that she can play a kiss solo that ace frehley himself cant even play live), but basically they only have two really great songs: “take it off” and “fall behind me”

1:00 - rjd2
due to some technical difficulties, rjd2’s set was kinda disappointing, but his dj skills still impressed, playing favourites such as “final frontier” and “the horror”

2:00 - the hives
probably the funniest set of the day, the main dude of the hives is a cheeky bastard and its hilarious: “now every one say ‘thank you hives!’ ” in this tiny version you cant see the impeccably dressed hives in their matching white suits, but i think this technicolour pic still captures the feeling of the day…

3:00 - the music
still suffering from a lead singer that sounds too much like geddy lee…

4:00 - kid koala
a scratch-filled reinvisioning of louie armstrong, a remix of seven nation army i actually approve of (walking down richmond last year and hearing a terrible dance version of 7na coming out of the phoenix made me wanna hurl) and other turntable acrobatics made sweating in the aptly named “hot house” well worth it

5:00 - le tigre
the only band i cant really describe, some sort of feminist electro pop punk rock choreographed dance routine riot girl thing, it was … the good kind of bizarre

5:30 - slipknot
a part of me wishes i wasnt needing a break from all the sunshine at this point and maybe i would have risked my life in the slipknot moshpit, but i was happy to watch these masked freaks and their army of fans (like literally, army, the kids all dress the same, obey their every command and smack each other around). you can see them all raising their fists in solidarity here…

6:30 - system of a down
meh.

7:00 - the polyphonic spree
i really encourage anyone and everyone to try and see the polyphonic spree live in concert if they can, its unlike any other live show youve seen. i kept thinking it was like worship or something. this group of 20 people in colourful robes playing all kinds of different instruments singing about sunshine and smiles and everything else happy and joyful. again, the good kind of bizarre.

7:30 - the streets
unfortunately i had to leave the polyphonic spree early (as is the case with these kind of shows, i also had to miss rise against for kid koala), but luckily it was to see everybody’s favourite uk mc, mike skinner. i thought it would be him and a dj but all the music was actually made by a drummer, a bass player, and a guy on keyboard, so that was impressive. i’d say the strength of the streets is the precision in the way he raps, which is kind of lacking in the live show, but still good nonetheless. “put on yer mittens for these sub-zero conditions”

8:30 - beastie boys
“i’m a mother fucking nick at night with/classics rerunning that you know all right” exactly what you want in a show: the classics, the best of the new, some obscure favourites, 4 screens, a “lounge band” interlude where they played some instrumental songs, an extremely talented dj, and 3 mcs who have more energy than most artists half their age.

10:00 - the chemical brothers
ending the night was the incomparable (uncomparable?) chemical brothers, managing to get every single person on their feet (i bet even the slipknot kids were like, ah shit, these guys can put down a beat). you know those bands that youve been a fan of for soo long and continue to put out great album after great album (which the chemical brothers just did with ‘push the button’ incedently) and you just cant wait to see them live? well the chemical brothers were one of the 3 remaining bands on my list (with sonic youth and bjork) and they were well worth the wait. im not much of a dancer (to put it mildly), but damn was i cuttin a metaphoric rug for their whole set. ending their set with my favourite tune of theirs, electrobank, and an encore of ‘the private psychedlic reel’, the chemical brothers wrapped up my big day out of 12 solid hours of amazing music.

link time again, i hope someone is reading these:

“Do You Suffer News Fatigue? Sick of dour headlines? Too much Bush and war and death and homophobia and Bush? You are not alone” - another thoughtful piece my mark morford, maybe ‘news fatigue’ is what happened to matt good, whose blog i miss very much.
“What Could Go Wrong in 2005?” - likening the american economy to a “haystack soaked in kerosene,” this essay looks at many of the potential and very real threats that could “set this ‘haystack’ alight” and start “financial Armageddon”.
Costofwar.com - this site constantly updates the cost of the iraq war, and you can see how that relates to other costs, for instance, since the cost is at about 151 billion dollars, that could have fully funded global anti-hunger efforts for 6 years. incedently, bush is now asking for another 80 billion.
“Empire Building: America and Its War with the Invisible Kingdom of Satan” - a great essay by norman mailer about the narrative(s) created by bush and co to sell the war, and how the economy and right wing religion fits into that story.
“Tsunami Media Convergence: Not a Fair Guiding Principle for Aid” - along the lines of my little tsunami rant, this essay looks at the some of the possible reasons why the tsunami aid was so big (dramatic footage, no complexity, christmas time, no one to blame) and how this outpouring of aid could actually be hurting other people.

ps big thanks to my e-saviour joe who not only set me up with this blog but also fixed it so its not all crazy looking in firefox anymore (which is the browser y’all should be using by the way, you can cut some ties to microsoft and use a far better product, its win-win)

first off, if you know what youre doing and where to look, the quality of a downloaded mp3 track/album can be very high and would require a very skilled ear and a very nice sound system to be able to notice any difference between an mp3 and a cd, so dont give me that crap about sound quality. more importantly though, are the ethics behind this mp3 mania that we are fortunate enough to be a part of. the positive side to mp3s is pretty obvious, a much greater access to a near limitless source of music. for instance, i now have somewhere in the neighbourhood of 18000 mp3s, the vast majority of which are full albums. if it wasnt for mp3 i would probably have never even heard of 80-90% of that music, and definitely wouldnt be the big fan of jazz, blues, indie, electronic, hiphop, and other forms of music that i never even gave a chance back in my pre-mp3 days. but of course there are the mp3 detractors, who are all somewhere on the continuum between greedy capitalist record label owner and dedicated fan wanting to “support the band”. oh, and then there are the fans who want to have that tangible cd in their hand, complete with album art and insert that is rarely ever read more than once. it is beyond my meager intelligence to explain this odd commodity fetishism. but back to the economics of mp3, i have one word for you: LIBRARY! books are free eh? one day soon libraries will be completely digital and all books will be available on demand (information wants to be free dont you know). maybe chapters and barnes & noble will have to cut out the book part of their business and concentrate solely on overpriced coffee, who knows. the point is, if books are potentially free, why not music? how cool would that be? dont worry, your precious artists will be fine. perhaps “cribs” will also be a victim of this mp3 revolution, but i think the world will be better off if nelly’s house doesnt have 43 plasma tv screens. the artists will still be touring and selling merchandise, so rest assured, they’ll get by. and if theyre worth a damn they should care more about the music than the plasma tv screens anyway. even the smallest of local bands is still probably making more money than me, or in the very least having a great time doing what they love in front of an endearing audience. which leads me to a much grander theme, cant you think of anything better to spend your 14.99 on? i dont know if you heard, but 200 and some odd thousand people just died and theres like what, millions homeless because of it? you sure you wanna spend 14.99 on that best of britney? why not download some music youve never heard of and then give away the money saved. everybody gains except the ceos, which makes its a win-win-win-win situation in my books.

“The Scandal Sheet” - thirty four scandals from the first bush term that are “surprisingly” unresolved and not talked about very much.
“Empty Hands in Iraq” - a succinct editorial from the toronto star about no wmd.
“None So Blind” - another good to-the-point editorial about bush and co.
” Global poll slams Bush leadership” - hey im in the majority, it feels good.
” US right attacks SpongeBob video” - “We see the video as an insidious means by which the organisation is manipulating and potentially brainwashing kids.” those damn queer loving liberals are at it again!
“What’s the Point of Protest?” - i’ve gotten this question quite a bit, and here’s a better answer than i could ever give. keep it in mind when you see the media’s spin on the inauguration day protests.

aaand just for fun, “The OC Effect” - “Hollywood has caught up with the latest generation of indie rockers. And it must be novel — not to mention lucrative — for the Shins and Death Cab for Cutie to hear their songs on Fox. But is the extra exposure worth having their treasured songs forever associated with Mischa Barton or that guy from Scrubs?”

mostly i just want to show off the first tshirt i have made. saying i designed it might be a bit of a stretch, i just took a screen grab from an episode of clone high and traced over it in flash and then added a circle, but either way, i like it. and thought you might too.

before i got my sis to take that first pic, i tried to take my own self portrait, which failed miserably, but i thought this one was pretty funny

and to keep the self-absorption train going, i googled my name the other day* and found that my profile thats in the western viewbook is online. this mug greets thousands upon thousands of potential western students:

* cause having no job and no school gives you lots of time to surf the internet aimlessly. for instance, on one of my frequent stops at britneyspears.com (i had to see her latest boob show- err, music video) i discovered that britney is writing her own screenplay! “I’ve been working on writing and hopefully eventually directing a musical which makes fun of the whole Hollywood scene, which is appropriately titled ‘Hollywood’.” how appropriate indeed ms. spears, i cant wait to see what witty insights you have on the inner workings of treacherous hollywood…

ps according to my site meter thingy i have a frequent visitor from the university of oklahoma, who are you mystery oklahoma person? leave a comment?

i wanted to really put some effort in to my best films and best albums of the year post, but its like 2 weeks too late already, my mind has been corrupted by all the other lists ive read, nobody really cares anymore, and i dont really wanna put in the effort. sooo without further a due, and without any descriptions as to why these are my favourite (you’ll just have to trust me, check them out):

fav albums of 2004 (in alphabetical order)

The Arcade Fire - Funeral
Brian Wilson - Smile
De La Soul - The Grind Date
DJ Dangermouse - The Grey Album
Elliott Smith - From A Basement on the Hill
The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike
Hayden - Elk Lake Serenade
Interpol - Antics
Joanna Newsom - Milk Eyed Mender
Madvillain - Madvillainy
The Streets - A Grand Dont Come for Free

fav films of 2004 (in alphabetical order)

Anchorman
The Corporation
Dogville
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Garden State
Hero
Kill Bill2
Oceans Twelve

films once i see that will probably make it on that list:

The Life Aquatic
House of Flying Daggers
A Very Long Engagement
I heart Huckabees
Before Sunrise
Napoleon Dynamite
The Aviator

damn australia and its movie backwardness

my most anticipated movie of 2005: sincity

and here are some of those lists that i thought were pretty good:
music - pitchfork, popmatters, woxy
film - popmatters, salon