treelight room

My favorite place in the whole world is Green Bay Bible Camp because I've been going since I was a little kid and every year has brought me something new. I've marked my life by summers and the Okanagan was the biggest presence of every season. No matter who I was with or what I learned or what we did, every year I came home with a head full of stories and a heart full of life. I was there this weekend and it was different - it was adult, it was complex, it was experimental, and it was a different Green Bay than what I had as a kid. But, even though it was strange and different, I brought things home in my head and things home in my heart and I made new friends and did new things. I met a girl named Lyric and she's in a band called treelight room and their music is different and individual and puts ideas in your head and life in your heart, so I thought I'd give them a plug because they remind me of the beach and the giant tree that I stood under as an eight year old as I held my kid brother's hand and watched the waves.

treelight room

The Library

I never go to the library.

I know this sounds strange, and you're probably thinking, "but Amanda! You're mildly nerdy, sort of bookish and reclusive! You love to learn! How do you avoid the library?!" Well, let me tell you. I like buying books because I highlight the crap out of them and then lend them to friends. Plus, having a bookshelf full of things I've read (I've read my height in books in the past two years!) makes me look intellegent and well-balanced (foolery!).

But alas, I'm now a poor college kid and I can't afford to buy lovelies such as Moby Dick, Hard Times, Pride and Prejudice, Treasure Island, etc etc (I did though; it's the "I'm clearly an English major" kind of spending problem). So, after racking up a serious bill at the bookstore, I ventured into the library, hanging my head in shame.

I didn't make it to the books, though: I was incredibly distracted by the shelves of DVDs and CDs! There are occasionally good DVDs like SNL's Best of Christopher Walken and 2001: A Space Oddysey, but what's even greater is the indie music collection! I've found Tegan & Sara, Franz Ferdinand, Arcade Fire, Metric, Tokyo Police Club, etc. I got far too excited to be in a library so I got out my card and swipe swipe swiped - and it sure felt nice not to punch in a pin or sign a receipt.

So, for any poor people out there who love books, never fear! Take all of the money you would spend on music, movies, and rentals and spend it all on books and highlight away! Then just mosey on down to the library and get your media fix there.

This is great news for me. I'm listening to Franz Ferdinand for free while I make my book wishlist (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is next up!). I know you're probably thinking, "Amanda, after this very nerdy blog entry, didn't you ever think just to borrow books from the library as well?" Well, I could do that. But let's face it, when you have a literary spending problem, baby steps are key, and forfeiting my Chapters bill isn't something I'm ready to put on my plate just yet.

Interesting things

This week's heavy rotation list:

-Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
-Apple-raspberry pie
-Modest Mouse's most recent album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
-Season 3 of Friends
-Strawberry candles
-Literary essays from Lit 12

I don't feel the need to elaborate upon any of these items because I think they speak for themselves, but I do think that if you aren't reading a book, if you haven't baked in some time, if you need some new music, if your television is lonely, if your house is smelly, or if you need a good laugh, invest your rainy evenings in the things I invest my rainy evenings in. That way, you'll love the weather that you used to hate.

Nada Surf, Al Gore

I finally went out and bought Nada Surf's "Lucky" album. It's good, but different: their older stuff was a lot more experimental with genres and sound etc etc., and this album is the "mature" one. I love it though, and it's on at HMV for $14.99 AND it comes with a bonus disc.

In other news, I like to make lists of unrealistic Life Goals (like punching someone; I know this will never happen) so I thought I'd add another one: I'd like to meet Al Gore. Not because I think he's particularly cool, but because I no longer feel particularly cool. I mean, I felt cool when I was going green and doing little things to save the planet. I felt cool when I thought about how hot our summers will be after all of this global warming business (which made me feel good because I figured that as I was saving the earth I would be temporarily rewarded with a killer tan). Now, I don't feel so cool anymore, and I'm pretty sure Al wouldn't either if he lived in Vancouver.

Snow? Give me a break. I'm going to go retire my Tide Coldwater now.

Music Videos

I don't generally watch music videos; I've never had the channel on television. But thanks to the wonder of YouTube, I've seen the ones that are super delicious, and I think you should too.

Bright Eyes' "First Day of My Life"
http://youtube.com/watch?v=o5rhhQbyYV0

Kate Nash's "Foundations"
http://youtube.com/watch?v=w9XA5Xb-ALk

Feist's "I Feel it All"
http://youtube.com/watch?v=IcgfdtkcIW0

Mariah Carey's "Touch My Body"
http://youtube.com/watch?v=CzxR8OH-fDQ

Ok Go's "A Million Ways"
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XkCfh7ayDms

The Kooks, Kate Nash

Did you know that the Island of Britain was joined to the rest of the continent as early as 8000 years ago? How interesting is that? Answer: mildly interesting.

Do you know what else Britain is good for? Music. Think of how many disfunctional musicians Britain has produced! From Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols and his unfortunate but sort of sexy ways to Amy Winehouse and her crack-fueled (which is not sexy at all) sort of ways, we've seen some very interesting British spawns spill their musical goodness all over us.

Dysfunction aside, there are some very functional and very lovely British artists that everybody should listen to - namely The Kooks and Kate Nash.

My friend Lauren (who's marrying a British gent, how fitting!!) introduced me to the Kooks. I don't really know how to explain them properly except to say that they really are lovely, and sort of rock-ish, and sometimes pop-ish, and once in a while summer campfire-ish. Luke's voice is full of pulp (the orange juice kind, not the Fiction kind) and sunshine and life and it's very interesting and works well with the music. Their Myspace has some of their best songs - from the adorable 'Seaside' to the suave 'Ooh la la' to my personal favorite, 'Naive.' Unfortunatly, the band didn't post their cover of Phantom Planet's 'California' (yes, the theme from The O.C.) which is very nice and slow and melodious. Download it, maybe? Please do.

Kate Nash may be familiar because her 'Merry Happy' was featured on Grey's Anatomy earlier this season. She's similar to Lily Allen in that she's adorable and catchy and full of pop goodness, but her music has less edge and attitude than Allen's (which, in her case, is good - but if Allen pulled the sweet vibe I would be disapointed because the world needs more edgy Lily goodness). She has a lovely voice and interesting content and great music videos, and despite her brightness, there is something dark hiding along the edges. I can't think of anything to say that explains her, so just check the link and revel in what she brings to the table. Make sure you listen to her cover of The White Stripes's 'Seven Nation Army,' it sounds great with the piano! My favorite of hers is 'Foundations,' which is also a fab music video. I will probably post a list of cool music videos tomorrow.

The Kooks: www.myspace.com/thekooksforever
Kate Nash: www.myspace.com/katenashmusic

Jack Johnson

Hey kids,

Jack Johnson has a new CD out titled "Sleep Through the Static" and although I haven't heard all of it, some of his songs are available on his Myspace and I've been indulging all morning. It's very fortunate for a musician when he or she is able to maintain a signature sound without going dry and without losing listeners. Johnson is respectable because he's been making the same style of music since Brushfire Fairytales and is still on the same record label. It's pretty nice that he hasn't succumbed to producers who want to change him or evolve his sound because he's lovely just as he is. I'm excited to buy Sleep Through the Static and hear the whole thing, but for now, the Myspace tracks are on heavy rotation like a washing machine.

He has also made several surf films, one of which is called Thicker than Water and is sitting on my DVD shelf. It's a beautiful, well put together film which taps into the kind of faded Polaroid nostalgia I love. Everything from the shots to the narration to the soundtrack are beautiful and wonderful and make my heart glow like cheap dollar store sicky stars on a ceiling. I don't think it's available for rental, but I'm sure it's available on Amazon for cheap; I bought it new and it was only $15. I suggest you check it out! I'm up for lending it out. :)

If you can't be bothered with a surf film, at least check out the new tracks:
http://www.myspace.com/jackjohnsonmusic

On a little side note, my mum loves him, and although she has a few of his albums (my mum is so cool) she can never remember that his name is 'Jack Johnson' and not 'John Jackson.' I thought that was cute so hopefully it made you smile too.

Death Cab for Cutie, Nada Surf

I'm house sitting for my cousins' family while they're away over Spring Break (apparantly everyone I'm related to is out galavanting around the globe except for myself...) and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to hole myself up in their house and do a lot of reading and homework and general nerdy-antic-participation in general. I found their computer though, so I guess that's a no-go because Myspace is feeding me music and I'm feeding myself coffee so I guess homework is out the window for the time being. Speaking of Myspace, I find it almost useless (I have a feeling they're kind of hating on Facebook and Mark Zuckerburg's sick commercial genius right now) except for the music network, which is GREAT because it means I don't have to track down band websites to find out if they have new music/albums/shows. So, because I don't talk about music too often, I'm going to take up some of your time (you're still reading? Props! I love you) to do so now.

I'm pretty awesome-excited because Death Cab for Cutie has a new album out on May 13, 2008 and apparantly they do some cool and different stuff on this album that they would never have thought of doing back in the late 1990's. DCFC is my long time favorite band (Nada Surf and Bloc Party are the other ultimate-can-do-no-wrong bands in my collection) and I feel justified spending large amounts of money on albums that I haven't even sampled because I know they're not going to fail me. I'm a very lyrics-based person and Ben Gibbard has written stuff that would put Bob Dylan to shame (I don't actually like Bob Dylan. He has a terrible voice, and while some of his lyrics are nice, on the whole I think there are many, many more talented lyricists out there who deserve some of the glory. Dylan is kind of a glory-hamster, always hoarding it away and enjoying it in the corner. I only alluded to him because I know a lot of people DO like him and I wanted to put Gibbard in perspective). I'm talking absolutely brilliant stuff here - 2003's Transatlanticism is the album that actually changed my life. I'm not going to give examples because I desperatly want you to check them out yourselves (links are at the bottom). I'm extremely bad at labelling bands and describing a band's sound in conventional terms, so please bear with me when I say that Death Cab is a band that swells with so much heart and love and nostalgia; they're full of starry nights and fireflies, of Polaroid-type memories, of false glamour and empty romance, of chai lattes and warm fires. So if you love the feeling any of those things brings you, get on the Death Cab train!

As I just mentioned, I'm also head over heels for Nada Surf. They, along with Death Cab, are on Barsuk Records (which is my favorite label because it's signed the kind of bands that can pull back your skin and bones and crawl into your organs and love you from the inside). They released a new album last month called Lucky, which I've heard a few songs from but haven't actually bought yet (I'm finally a 'poor college student'! I never thought I actually would be, but finding a loonie in my car brings me so much joy.. I'm saving my change for this album) and they are also playing at the Commodore on March 29th (I don't care how poor I am, somehow I will be there). They have a similar thing going next to Death Cab, but a different look and a different voice. Once again doing my strange music description thing, they kind of feel like driving fast on the highway, or skinny dipping on a warm summer night, or rolling down hills full of cool grass - actually, they're kind of the musical incarnation of what Kurt Halsey's art is all about (scroll down: I wrote about him a few weeks ago).


If you're into downloading (I'll admit, I do it, but only to sample bands - but I wont burn an album. Wouldn't you want to get paid for your work??), I reccommend these songs to get you going:

by Death Cab:

Marching Bands of Manhattan
I Will Follow You Into the Dark
The New Year
The Sound of Settling
We Laugh Indoors
Company Calls
Company Calls Epilogue
Champagne in a Paper Cup

by Nada Surf:

Do It Again
Always Love
Blizzard of '77
Blonde on Blonde
Là Pour Ça
Popular

Here are some links to check these babies out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_cab
http://www.myspace.com/deathcabforcutie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nada_surf
http://www.myspace.com/nadasurf
http://www.barsuk.com/

G-Unit Hoodies and Usher

I bought a G-Unit hoodie a few days ago.

I'll admit, this is a bit of a strange purchase for me, since I'm usually all about the cardigans and flats and I more often than not listen to indie rock (my friend Jessica kindly informed me that I was the whitest person she knew today). However, I have a bit of a hip-hiop/gangster fascination but I don't own anything remotely blingin' so I decided to get the hoodie. It's super cute and says 'G-Unit' all over it in fun colors. Well once I got my belly into the sweater, I wanted to dance. I wanted to saunter and use colloquialisms such as "aight" (this means "alright" and it constantly boggles my mind that high school ballin' kids can take themselves seriously when using it) and I wanted to wear my white sunglasses at night. I did all of these things. I got several strange looks when I was in McDonalds and on the Skytrain, mostly from people who are genuinly more hip-hoppish than I am. This did not bother me because they did not have such a bright and shiny zip-up friend. However, I decided I should make myself more legit. I wanted to be so legit that I could not quit, and so I blasted the Beat in my car, and in my room, and even on my computer. Now, I occasionally listen to the Beat when I have no CDs in my car, but for once I packed away my own music and started groovin' to over-advertized mainstream beatz.

As I was bip-boppin in my car, Usher's new single came on. This song is titled, "Love in the Club," which sounds very cute until the chorus comes on, which features the highly intellectual line: "I wanna make love in this club - ey!" Now, I'm all for the phrase "make love" because it sounds a whole lot nicer, romantic and sincere than "doing it" etc. But seriously, one cannot possibly have sex in a club and consider it nice, romantic, or sincere. It is simple biology at this level: sex. Not love. Even if the couple involved is in love, having sex in a club filled with half-dressed, half-drunk sweaty strangers takes all the lovin' out of the making love, reducing it, once again, to having sex. This was my first big beef with this song: Usher is turning something sincere into something dirty, and I greatly disagree with this tactic which is an obvious make-money sort of song because I'm sure drunk girls are just loving the idea of "making love" being in a song they can shake their booties to.

The next problem I had with this song was every other line in it. These men use great lines such as: "the way you staring miss you got me wantin to give it to you all night" (would any non-inflatable woman really want to be spending her entire night doing this? I think not), "I’ll set you free sexually, mentally, physically, emotionally" (I doubt any man is capable of this sort of freedom. Unless I'm mistaken, most men aren't even capable of calling on time or cleaning the kitchen), and "imma give it to you non stop and I dont care, who's watchin'" (grammar aside, would you want people to be watching? Doubtful).

All in all, this song is probably the stupidest thing I've heard since Fergie's "Fergalicious" (Really, Fergie, really? Anyone who needs to inject their own name into their music to plug it is a little bit on the silly side) which is an enormous statement on my behalf. I would have thought that after so many years in the Industry, Usher would have been able to hire a better team of writers to accomlplish his musical feats. This song made me sad because there are a lot of really talented hip-hop artists and rappers out there (Ludacris is a prime example of a talented writer, and regardless of his morality, Eminem is also pretty talented at weaving together a song that clearly has some significance in his life) who are getting less radio play due to Usher and his lame-ness. I feel disgrace for the industry and for a second, I doubted my judgement on my hip-hop immersement (I quickly realized this was an absurd kind of doubt. Hip-hop will always be cool even if Usher is not). Now, I'm not here to suggest we all boycott this song or anything immature or childish like that. All I'm saying is, I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that a really phenomenal song comes along to phase out "Love in this Club." Until then, I will be listening to my indie CDs while rockin' the G-Unit hoodie.

The Canterbury Tales, Even Pidgeons go to Heaven, The Kitchen

Unfortunatly, I plan on destroying my afternoon by writing a paper about the Canterbury Tales, and although I enjoyed reading parts of it, I do NOT want to write ten pages on why the Nun's Priest's Tale is funny, mostly because it wasn't. It was a parable about a chicken and a rooster and bluntly comments on male and female gender roles. I dislike Medival comedy, ten page papers, barnyard animals, and gender roles. Especially gender roles. I've been learning about gender roles since my first year at SFU and the only thing I've ever taken away from such lessons is that I am a girl and that is why I act like a girl. Regardless of my dislike for sections of the Canterbury Tales, I suggest that if you have a half hour, Google search the Wife of Bath prologue and tale and give it a quick read through (find the modern translation, I'm sure you'd hate the Old English more than myself.) because she is actually funny, and is a totally fresh and wild break from what has been written about women over the years.

Also, I have two more suggestions pour vous, since it's the weekend and I'm sure most people that read this aren't going out to party (because that's boring). They are:

One of the nominated short animated films from the Oscars is called "Even pidgeons go to heaven" and I know I've mentioned it before although I don't remember the details I gave. WATCH IT! It's ten minutes and super cute, super funny, etc. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agRX7w-2xRE

Also, there's this great local band called The Kitchen (don't try and Google that, what a nightmare) that I saw live last fall at the SFU pub (they played with Stabilo and it was incredible). They have a really fantastic funk vibe and are very well put together. You can listen to three of their songs at their Myspace ("Flow" is my favorite). http://www.myspace.com/kitchenmusic



Also, HI MIRIAM! I have your umbrella, you left it in the car today :)