bye bye for now
Dec 12th
so i always told myself that i’d stop over-sharing my life online once i had my name in a book, and now i do, so it’s about time i shut down the blogging. for now.
stupid internet. somehow drunken vegas stories don’t really seem like a good idea anymore with teachers getting fired over pictures on facebook and what have you.
stay tuned for the 3.0 update. coming soon.
update: i’m back! 75% less embarrassing and career-threatening!
favs of 2008 – albums
Dec 12th
approximate order, give or take:
crystal castles – crystal castles
[myspace] [torrent]
fleet foxes – sun giant ep & fleet foxes
[myspace] [torrent] [torrent]
no age – nouns
[myspace] [torrent]
portishead – the third
[myspace] [torrent]
be your own pet (rip) – get awkward
[myspace] [torrent]
erykah badu – new amerykah part one (4th world war)
[myspace] [torrent]
times new viking – rip it off
[myspace] [torrent]
land of talk – some are lakes
[myspace] [torrent]
hercules and love affair – hercules and love affair
[myspace] [torrent]
hold steady – stay positive
[myspace] [torrent]
tokyo police club – elephant shell
[myspace] [torrent]
hayden – in field & town
[myspace] [torrent]
the raconteurs – consolers of the lonely
[myspace] [torrent]
cut copy – in ghost colours
[myspace] [torrent]
the vivian girls – the vivian girls
[myspace] [torrent]
beck – modern guilt
[myspace] [torrent]
el guincho – Alegranza
[myspace] [torrent]
lil wayne – tha carter 3
[myspace] [torrent]
quiet village – silent movie
[myspace] [torrent]
broken social scene presents brendan canning - something for all of us
[myspace]
flying lotus – los angeles
[myspace] [torrent]
tv on the radio – dear science
[myspace] [torrent]
girl talk - feed the animal
[myspace] [pay what you want]
crystal castles finally gave birth to the sublimated unconscious of my 8 bit ninja gaiden youth… no age and times new viking and the vivian girls found the brian wilson in fuzz… fleet foxes brought me back to folky pussy shit (a continual flee and return process)… portishead defied the rules of comeback… be your own pet finally made it across the border for my third attempt to see them live. jemma cursed at the audience and left early. they broke up soon after. i wouldn’t want it any other way… tokyo police club and land of talk couldn’t live up to the un-live-up-to-able quality of their debut eps, but their debut albums are all too solid… hercules and love affair replaced the field for my go-to doin it album… the hold steady kept up the sing-a-long songs as scripture… hayden piled on the proof that his ‘lush’ era (from skyscraper on) far outweighs his lo-fi era… jack white is still god, but he’s jesus in the desert, lost and tempted by satan. 2k9er should be a stripes year… cut copy made us dance and beck made us remember why we love beck… broken social scene, a project based on continual renewal, continued to renew. liz powell from land of talk singing on 2 tracks certainly didn’t hurt… quiet village and flying lotus and el guincho chopped and mashed with finesse, while girl talk continued to impress…
favs of 2008 – songs
Dec 12th
fav of the year: erykah badu – soldier
a simple drum beat, an even simpler flute sample, i don’t quite understand how she can much manage such warmth and righteous indignation at the exact same time. enmeshing the personal with the political, it touches on 9/11, iraq and katrina, while celebrating a new history that she couldn’t even have imagined at the time (the album came out in february, only two weeks after obama announced his candidacy). soldier marks the end of one era and the beginning of another, a new amerykah indeed.
in addition to that squeal that joanna newsom lets out before a big note, particularly on cosmia, my favourite female vocal sound ever is erykah badu’s ‘eeeeha’ at the 2:01 mark…
the rest, in alphabetical order, give or take:
air france – collapsing at your doorstep
beck – gamma ray
be your own pet – becky
brazilian girls – good time
css – ratt is dead
crystal castles – crimewave
crystal castles – Xxzcuzx Me
cut copy – midnight runner
deerhunter – nothing ever happened
fleet foxes – mykonos
fleet foxes – english house
girl talk – let me see you
hayden – where and when
Hercules and Love Affair – Blind
land of talk – some are lakes
lykke li – little bit
M83 – kim and jessie
no age – brain burner
portishead – nylon smile
santogold – shove it
times new viking – (my head)
times new viking – call & respond
the hold steady – slapped actress
the raconteurs – top yourself
tv on the radio – red dress
vivian girls – tell the world
here’s a zip with all of them
favs of 2008 – videos
Dec 12th
along with crystal castles, this year was all about the technostalgia. here, a plucky young lad from scotland remixes radiohead’s “nude” to create a four-part audio-visual symphony: an 8-bit home computer that came out the year i was born, a scanner, a dot matrix printer, and a bunch of hard drive speakers.
photo week 5/7: dan and kristina’s wedding
Sep 5th
my buddy dan, who i’ve known ever since i began to form memories. and his beautiful wife.
seeing as i was actually in this wedding, i didn’t get too many pictures… or any of the actual ceremony… but the reception was a hell of a lot of fun…
did you know i was donahoe’s prom date? that was like, a million years ago. she is now totally embarrassed of this fact. i bring it up as much as possible.
lil guy’s pre-rug-cutting intense focus
when laura is less than impressed with her sparkler’s performance, it is written all over her face.
so we got them a foosball table, which we thought would be an easy set-up post-wedding. getting those little men on the poles, however, proved to be a tremendous challenge…
…which led to a lot of “lube it up” and “push harder” and “pole jammin” type jokes. us vanderschtroellys are slowly getting married (and one is preggos!), but we don’t intend on actually growing up.
3 hours later (seriously), it was set up. we played a single match and promptly went to bed.
another year
Sep 2nd
in what was supposed to be my first september without school, it is now the night before school starts. for which will be grade 21? is that math right? wow, i am a lifer. and lookin at another 4 or 5 for a phd? though now i’m actually in more of a limbo than another proper year of school. my department was in need of another teaching assistant, and my supervisor wanted me to be his research assistant, copy writing for his book series, and my thesis was coming along, but it would have been hell to finish it by august, so i’m a ubc’er for another term (maybe two, i kind of really like being a TA so why not). once i decided i was staying on, the thesis work became almost non-existent. instead, the priority shifted to poutine. figured i would use my magical free flying powers (meg i luv youu) to go to montreal and home again, and since i was checking out mcgill and concordia as potential phd schools, i can rationalize 8 days of visiting friends and boozing as a ‘working holiday’. bri and dal showed me around their envious school and city, despite all their own thesis prep/stress. much thanks..
my battery charger was lost, so i didn’t take my camera, but dallas was there to capture all of the beer-hotdog-and-poutine-fueled sacrilegious, picnic-in-the-park good times.
photo credit: dallas @ rationalpassion.blogspot.com
and then i went to ontario, mostly for paige’s party for mobilemoment.ca, which she booked annie to dj. my favourite part was when she played flat beats.
and annie has a new album, “don’t stop,” which is really good. the indie world has its kylie minogue.
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