a whole new world

this may be one of the only really funny things I ever do, and I'm cool with that.

pillow clouds of poison gas

Some things that have been on my mind:

Firstly, has anybody besides myself noticed that this video is receiving large amounts of hits? It jumped almost a thousand within the past week. I've tried to check the stats but have come to no solid conclusions. I figured it was linked to some site perhaps, but who knows. I didn't think it was that good in the first place, except maybe when I wrote it, four years ago.






I recorded that piece just the other day. That siren sound was not added, but fully interrupted my one and only acoustic guitar recording. I saw it as fate and kept it. That is a small example of how much noise my bedroom endures at any given moment. The poor quality is mostly due to the fact that the built-in Mac microphones were never meant to record any instrument of any kind.

I was originally inspired when introduced to a new tuning (open A), while in the process of learning the entire Icky Thump album by The White Stripes. Aside from the new tuning, I did manage to learn every song (aside from the cookey guitar solos) on the record. It was a lot easier than I thought it'd be, but garage rock always is.

Now why not talk about some more music?

Some other quality records that I have been into lately include:

Japandroids - Post-Nothing
Great Canadian duo. I took a chance on this album and based my decision on getting it when seeing them on the cover of Exclaim! last week. I love duo groups. I love to see them achieve success because there are so many limits with just two people, and not just in their sound. There's also a lot of freedom. Small bands are mobile and travel well. A classic example of that would be Museum Pieces, who claimed to have toured the country in a Honda Civic.
Either way, this album is full of sweet stuff, and I can't stop listening to the albums outro "I Quit Girls".

Matthew Good's song "Life Beyond the Minimum Safe Distance"
Download it, listen to it, and love it. Even reading the lyrics is enough for me. I know only so few writers who can paint such images with that little words. Lines like:
"Like a climber lost in the mountains, I dream only of sleeping." strike such chords in me. That whole album is awesome, but this is truly a gem.

Department of Eagles - In Ear Park
One of my favorite albums since, well, I have a lot of recently favored albums. But this one is awesome. Really weird, full of reverb, abstract themes, beautiful instrumentation, and catchy shit. It's the kind I can really wrap my head around as a musician because it's so unique and I have no idea how most of those sounds are created. That, and No One Does it Like You is the most played song on my iTunes.

Asobi Seksu - Citrus
One of those albums that is good enough to buy even after downloading it. I intend on doing such a thing. This is not the kind of record you'd put on at a party, it's just for you and maybe who you're in bed with. Literally translating to "playful sex", and fronted by one hell of an asian hottie, this band cooks with loud sonic, electric soundscapes accompanied by Japanese falsetto lyricism. It's romantic, loud, fun, and mysterious all at once. Good listen.

Oh! Would you look at the time. Sleep would be best if I want to avoid any more nervous breakdowns. Hand specialist in the morning.

hi, i'm a mac

Yeah yeah yeah yeah, new laptop. Fairly excited.
I found it really strange when I was asked about my new computer, to which my response was pretty unenthusiastic. But really, what is there to get excited about when your computer has nothing on it? Photo Booth is fun, because I can make crazy faces, but other than that I'm still getting used to the platform. Macs are funny machines. Everything is quite streamlined, but it's like learning to ride a bike again. I've been rocking on windows so long that I know no other way around. So yes, it will be a many days reading manuals and playing around with hotkeys, which is kind of fun. One thing weird about this computer is that the "v" key is HYPER SENSITIVE. By that I mean I just have to touch the key, not even press, and the fucker clicks. So I've been seeing all these v's spread out randomly through my writings, and if I leave my finger on the key without looking, a huge mess of v's show up, like this vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv. I probably changed some sensitivity settings without thinking, or not.
Aside from that, I plan on acquiring some nifty programs: Photoshop, Logic Pro, Final Cut, all the Garage Band Jam Packs (thanks Dan), and maybe something else nifty. Even with the new machine, I still do not plan on downloading music, mostly just because I feel bad when I do. Sometimes I feel that if I can't afford it, I shouldn't hear it, which is rediculous in many ways and I could analyze that to death, but I won't.

Lately, I feel as though I've been in horrible overall health. Not only do I feel like I'm going to faint all the time, but I've been getting short flu flashforwards. My knee painfully buckled yesterday when walking, which is incredibly random because I've never experienced any sort of injury down there. Other than that, my friend Aaron and I have decided to become men and grow mustaches, which is really funny because we both have blonde facial hair and we look hilarious because the staches are transparent.

Things I've been into lately:
- the fact that I can learn anything, which is an elementary idea, but it excites me to no end.
- George Carlin. Watch his material online and be enlightened. I'll soon post some favourites of mine.
- Bill O'Reilly (the exact opposite of Carlin). Quite possibly one of the largest assholes on the Fox Planet, but so entertaining to watch and such a flaming patriotic jackhole.
- Considering a degree in fine art.
- Chicago
- Bruce Springsteen's Devils and Dust
- Film. Fuck digital, for the moment.
- Working on my bounce-flash technique (thanks for the tips Jenna)
- new Hue songs
- realising that I don't have to wait until New Years for a resolution
- asking questions, a lot of them.
- drip coffee (ps. since when?)
- the voice recorder on my phone, which I use almost every day. most of it is freestyles.
- freestyling

There, now you know what I'm interested in at the moment. Do you care? The only reason I do is because I can look back on this post one day and laugh about drip coffee and freestyling.

One last thing that is somewhat of interest to me: Taking your current state of personality and analyzing what parts of you came from which parent. That's one thing I'd like to unravel, and I recommend you do the same.