a close to dvdrip quality version of Black Swan leaked yesterday. it may or may not be on my hard drive at the moment (if it were, no guilt because i paid to see it twice - that's how it works, right? like you're allowed to download cd's that you already own?)
anyway, i had the chance to watch a couple things closely today, even though i should be cleaning the apartment and finishing my unpacking (yes, i moved in close to 6 months ago).
so a little more indepth analysis of my two favourite scenes from the movie.
**major spoilers lie ahead**
When Nina gets home from the club and walks in the door to her apartment with Lily. That's what we see, but it becomes obvious later on that Lily isn't actually there and from what i gather stayed at the club when Nina got in the cab. According to someone on imdb there is an audio cue that plays everytime Nina is 'hallucinating?' but i haven't caught it yet (that's gonna take another couple viewings i think! haha). anyway, Nina and Lily walk in to the apartment and the point of view is from a mirror within a mirror. The way Nina and Lily are standing, the view through the mirror (audience's perspective) is half of Nina and half of Lily form one person before they split apart when one of the turns around. ingenius! then, as Nina's psychotic mother questions her about where she's been, Nina says: "to the moon..." then cut to Lily leaning against the wall opposite, whispering the completion of the sentence as Nina finishes it "...and back". the whole segment lasts less than 60 seconds but is pulled off so well that it's one of the best parts of the movie for me. I wish i was still at Dawson studying cinema so that i could write a monster of a paper on the intricacies of Black Swan.
As for my other favourite scene, it has to be right before the end in Nina's dressing room as she has her "holy shit moment" and comes to realize what she's done. as she looks down and sees the blood and pulls out the shard of glass. this is Nathalie Portman's shining moment in the film for me. a splitsecond before she glances down at her dress, you can see her eyes well up with tears and they fall just as she lowers her head. she pulls out the glass and the strings and horns swell - so, so, so, beautiful. so well done. it's an INCREDIBLE scene. honestly, i never really liked Nathalie Portman that much in anything prior to this. i doubt she has ever delivered a performance even half as intense as this. And i know that she never will either. This role was her masterpiece and I'm really happy that she took advantage of the opportunity and pulled it off so brilliantly.
The dinner club scene is also very cool, because Arronosky actually manages to translate the euphoric, dissociative and general warm, hazy and unfocused feel of a mdma trip on screen - the lights, the cuts matching the beat. bonus points for that, because it could have been a little cheesy.
Ok, i'm done. I promise, no more gushing about this movie (at least until Oscar time).
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
perfection re-visited
Black Swan... where to begin?
i rarely go to the cinema to see movies anymore, what with the price being something like $15. when i started going to the theater regularly at the age of 12, it was 5$ to see a movie. then again when i started smoking at 14, packs were 4$. anyway, all this to say that going to the movies is a rare treat for me these days. last tuesday, i took advantage of half price tuesdays and went to see Black Swan. Tonight, also being Tuesday, i went to see it again.
I first saw the trailer for it around mid-summer, and i knew instantly that it was going to be special. I like Arronofsky. I liked Requiem for a Dream, in spite of Jennifer Connolly and her eyebrows. It came out in the midst of my raving days, which made it seem extra relevant. i remember eating some mushrooms in my friend Jeff's parents basements and watching it. The soundtrack was the best part; Clint Mansell never disappoints (he also did the score for Black Swan). I enjoyed his first movie, Pi; the numerology and Kabballa connection was quite interesting. I am one of the few people who actually enjoyed The Fountain. It was filmed here in Montreal, and i was randomly contacted on myspace by someone involved with the film years ago (2004, if i remember correctly). He was a cute guy named Matthew and we went for drinks a few times. He was a friend of Darren's and was filming the behind the scenes footage for the extra features on the DVD. He had some funny anecdotes about Hugh Jackman shaving his head bald for some scenes in the movie and a freezing warehouse where they were shooting. anyway, i liked it, but i can understand why it was pretty much universally panned by critics and audiences alike. I think the execution was brilliant (including, for once, the CGI), but the film suffered from trying to do, or show, too much. i chalked it up to Darren being too ambitious and biting off more than he could chew. I haven't seen The Wrestler yet - maybe i will, maybe i won't.
so, yeah.. Black Swan...(may contain very minor spoilers and nuts)
i won't mince words; this is the best movie i have seen in 10 years. The movie that has touched me the most since "Mulholland Drive", wayyyy back in 2001. it's sad to think that it's taken that long. on first glance, one might assume that any dark 'psychological thriller' with two pretty ladies making out in it will automatically garner high praise from me. not true. Without getting into too much detail, Mulholland Drive touched me in a way no movie previously had or ever will. It's all about being able to relate. it just so happens that i can relate to Diane Selwyn's character so much that it's scary. I get how easy and quick it can be for true love to turn in murderous hate (for the record, i've never murdered anyone... hahaha!) And i also happen to love David Lynch. It is what it is. There are many connections to be made between the two movies, way beyond lesbian make out sessions. There's also a lot of "Repulsion" in it, which is another one of my favourites.
Black Swan flirts with perfection, it really does. The only slight negative that comes to mind is the sometimes heavy-handedness of the symbolism used by Arronofsky - there were a lot of mirrors, a lot of black and white, light and dark... that being said, everything else, from the performances (esp. Portman, Kunis and Cassel), the casting, the script, the makeup, the costumes, the score, the camera work was perfect. especially the camera work. at first, i was a little disconcerted by the up close and personal feel of the hand-held, but it really adds to the overall effect. especially the dancing scenes. both times i left the theater feeling 'out of sorts' physically. a little drained emotionally too, as if that even has to be said. the last 30 minutes or so of the film are exhilarating beyond words. if something can be both frenetic and restrained at the same time then this is a perfect example. hard to explain - it's just something that has to be seen.
I suppose i do have a thing for movies with female leads involving a descent into madness. If Nathalie Portman doesn't win the best actress Oscar, it will be a crime against humanity. mind you, naomi watts wasn't even nominated for MD, so nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to the Academy. I was skeptical about Mila Kunis in this role, i really was. all doubt was completely unfounded because she pulled it off. so well, in fact, that i can't even picture any one else playing her part. i know i'll be keeping an eye on her upcoming roles (yes, she is very easy on the eyes). i have tons more to say about the movie, but am going to wait for subsequent viewings, of which there will be many, to expound further.
for anyone interested, my top three female performances in modern day cinema:
Naomi Watts in "Mulholland Drive"
Catherine Deneuve in "Repulsion"
Nathalie Portman in "Black Swan"
all three movies are in my top 10. all three are dark, intense and emotionally-charged - just how i like em!
i rarely go to the cinema to see movies anymore, what with the price being something like $15. when i started going to the theater regularly at the age of 12, it was 5$ to see a movie. then again when i started smoking at 14, packs were 4$. anyway, all this to say that going to the movies is a rare treat for me these days. last tuesday, i took advantage of half price tuesdays and went to see Black Swan. Tonight, also being Tuesday, i went to see it again.
I first saw the trailer for it around mid-summer, and i knew instantly that it was going to be special. I like Arronofsky. I liked Requiem for a Dream, in spite of Jennifer Connolly and her eyebrows. It came out in the midst of my raving days, which made it seem extra relevant. i remember eating some mushrooms in my friend Jeff's parents basements and watching it. The soundtrack was the best part; Clint Mansell never disappoints (he also did the score for Black Swan). I enjoyed his first movie, Pi; the numerology and Kabballa connection was quite interesting. I am one of the few people who actually enjoyed The Fountain. It was filmed here in Montreal, and i was randomly contacted on myspace by someone involved with the film years ago (2004, if i remember correctly). He was a cute guy named Matthew and we went for drinks a few times. He was a friend of Darren's and was filming the behind the scenes footage for the extra features on the DVD. He had some funny anecdotes about Hugh Jackman shaving his head bald for some scenes in the movie and a freezing warehouse where they were shooting. anyway, i liked it, but i can understand why it was pretty much universally panned by critics and audiences alike. I think the execution was brilliant (including, for once, the CGI), but the film suffered from trying to do, or show, too much. i chalked it up to Darren being too ambitious and biting off more than he could chew. I haven't seen The Wrestler yet - maybe i will, maybe i won't.
so, yeah.. Black Swan...(may contain very minor spoilers and nuts)
i won't mince words; this is the best movie i have seen in 10 years. The movie that has touched me the most since "Mulholland Drive", wayyyy back in 2001. it's sad to think that it's taken that long. on first glance, one might assume that any dark 'psychological thriller' with two pretty ladies making out in it will automatically garner high praise from me. not true. Without getting into too much detail, Mulholland Drive touched me in a way no movie previously had or ever will. It's all about being able to relate. it just so happens that i can relate to Diane Selwyn's character so much that it's scary. I get how easy and quick it can be for true love to turn in murderous hate (for the record, i've never murdered anyone... hahaha!) And i also happen to love David Lynch. It is what it is. There are many connections to be made between the two movies, way beyond lesbian make out sessions. There's also a lot of "Repulsion" in it, which is another one of my favourites.
Black Swan flirts with perfection, it really does. The only slight negative that comes to mind is the sometimes heavy-handedness of the symbolism used by Arronofsky - there were a lot of mirrors, a lot of black and white, light and dark... that being said, everything else, from the performances (esp. Portman, Kunis and Cassel), the casting, the script, the makeup, the costumes, the score, the camera work was perfect. especially the camera work. at first, i was a little disconcerted by the up close and personal feel of the hand-held, but it really adds to the overall effect. especially the dancing scenes. both times i left the theater feeling 'out of sorts' physically. a little drained emotionally too, as if that even has to be said. the last 30 minutes or so of the film are exhilarating beyond words. if something can be both frenetic and restrained at the same time then this is a perfect example. hard to explain - it's just something that has to be seen.
I suppose i do have a thing for movies with female leads involving a descent into madness. If Nathalie Portman doesn't win the best actress Oscar, it will be a crime against humanity. mind you, naomi watts wasn't even nominated for MD, so nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to the Academy. I was skeptical about Mila Kunis in this role, i really was. all doubt was completely unfounded because she pulled it off. so well, in fact, that i can't even picture any one else playing her part. i know i'll be keeping an eye on her upcoming roles (yes, she is very easy on the eyes). i have tons more to say about the movie, but am going to wait for subsequent viewings, of which there will be many, to expound further.
for anyone interested, my top three female performances in modern day cinema:
Naomi Watts in "Mulholland Drive"
Catherine Deneuve in "Repulsion"
Nathalie Portman in "Black Swan"
all three movies are in my top 10. all three are dark, intense and emotionally-charged - just how i like em!
Monday, November 22, 2010
a happy monday?
i called in sick to work today. i'm not sick.
i feel guilty for throwing away $200, and it's not like i work more than 3 days a week these days, but...
i made up for it by watching youtube videos of my favourite male actors in their sexiest scenes (my version of sexy - not typical!! hahaha)
in terms of sheer hotness, this scene is a hands down favourite of mine. the way Cillian Murphy run his fingers through his hair and says "the bat...man" - just wow. the first time i saw Batman Begins was at the IMAX theater at the Paramount, alone and tripping on acid. i had a smile plastered on my face for days afterwards. :D
terrible quality cam of a tv screen that does not do the scene justice, but the only embedable one i could find.
next up, Gary Oldman in the Professional. First and foremost, i respect Oldman for his acting skills. He and Philip Seymour Hoffman are my favourite character actors. and the man is best friends with Tim Roth. Yes, Gary Oldman and Tim Roth. i just can't even... never mind. Moving on, I only recently saw Leon: The Professional which is unfortunate since it happens to be one of the most amazing action movies ever (right up there with The Jackal and Ronin!). Oldman's crooked cop character Stansfield is the best part of this movie - another one in the long list of demented characters played by him. These two scenes involve the consumption of what i assume to be amphetamines, and i don't know what it is exactly (in the first clip, i'm thinking it's the high p.o.v shot down on him from above), but DAMN is that man ever gorgeous!! and the post pill crunching shudder. woah. hahaha i feel like a giddy pre-teen with tigerbeat posters on her wall (when i was 11, one of my bedroom walls was a shrine to Christian Slater!). maybe this is just my way of keeping warm to stave off the impending harshness of winter! Yeah! That's it!
The dubbed Italian at the end just makes it all the sexier! hahaha!
what's your name, angel?
So i mentioned that Gary Oldman and Philip Seymour Hoffman are my two favourite character actors, which is true, but i have to add Tim Roth to the list. I mean, the man has played a neo-nazi, an ape, a buffed-up supervillain, a bellhop, and undercover cop, a piano phenom, an extra from Hamlet, a junkie opposite Tupac, Vincent Van Gogh, just to name a few roles. And everything he's done is convincing. if that's not the definition of a character actor, i don't know what is. He is an amazing actor, so good that i'm even willing to forgive him his cameo in the stinking pile of shit that was the Million Dollar Hotel (love Milla Jovovich and Bono and Jeremy Davies but still not worth watching).
This is a legthly, though well done, compilation of some of his best work:
and finally, Philip Seymour Hoffman. Yes, i find him to be an attractive man. Not so much these last years as he looks a little slobby, but acting-wise he's still top notch. Best move i've seen him in recently was Doubt a few years ago. In terms of all time best perfomances, I loved him in Happiness, but Magnolia is by far his best work. The whole film is a masterpiece and probably in my top 10, but his performance as the compassionate male nurse was the most touching, by far. PT Anderson wrote the part specifically for him just like he did with Julianne Moore's character in Boogie Nights. Speaking of Julianne Moore, the scene between her and Hoffman in Magnolia is one of my personal favourites - i tear up everytime.
The scene in question begins at the 4 minute mark or so of this clip, but the whole thing is worth watching for Julianne Moore's amazingly unhinged and profane performance!!
i feel guilty for throwing away $200, and it's not like i work more than 3 days a week these days, but...
i made up for it by watching youtube videos of my favourite male actors in their sexiest scenes (my version of sexy - not typical!! hahaha)
in terms of sheer hotness, this scene is a hands down favourite of mine. the way Cillian Murphy run his fingers through his hair and says "the bat...man" - just wow. the first time i saw Batman Begins was at the IMAX theater at the Paramount, alone and tripping on acid. i had a smile plastered on my face for days afterwards. :D
terrible quality cam of a tv screen that does not do the scene justice, but the only embedable one i could find.
next up, Gary Oldman in the Professional. First and foremost, i respect Oldman for his acting skills. He and Philip Seymour Hoffman are my favourite character actors. and the man is best friends with Tim Roth. Yes, Gary Oldman and Tim Roth. i just can't even... never mind. Moving on, I only recently saw Leon: The Professional which is unfortunate since it happens to be one of the most amazing action movies ever (right up there with The Jackal and Ronin!). Oldman's crooked cop character Stansfield is the best part of this movie - another one in the long list of demented characters played by him. These two scenes involve the consumption of what i assume to be amphetamines, and i don't know what it is exactly (in the first clip, i'm thinking it's the high p.o.v shot down on him from above), but DAMN is that man ever gorgeous!! and the post pill crunching shudder. woah. hahaha i feel like a giddy pre-teen with tigerbeat posters on her wall (when i was 11, one of my bedroom walls was a shrine to Christian Slater!). maybe this is just my way of keeping warm to stave off the impending harshness of winter! Yeah! That's it!
The dubbed Italian at the end just makes it all the sexier! hahaha!
what's your name, angel?
So i mentioned that Gary Oldman and Philip Seymour Hoffman are my two favourite character actors, which is true, but i have to add Tim Roth to the list. I mean, the man has played a neo-nazi, an ape, a buffed-up supervillain, a bellhop, and undercover cop, a piano phenom, an extra from Hamlet, a junkie opposite Tupac, Vincent Van Gogh, just to name a few roles. And everything he's done is convincing. if that's not the definition of a character actor, i don't know what is. He is an amazing actor, so good that i'm even willing to forgive him his cameo in the stinking pile of shit that was the Million Dollar Hotel (love Milla Jovovich and Bono and Jeremy Davies but still not worth watching).
This is a legthly, though well done, compilation of some of his best work:
and finally, Philip Seymour Hoffman. Yes, i find him to be an attractive man. Not so much these last years as he looks a little slobby, but acting-wise he's still top notch. Best move i've seen him in recently was Doubt a few years ago. In terms of all time best perfomances, I loved him in Happiness, but Magnolia is by far his best work. The whole film is a masterpiece and probably in my top 10, but his performance as the compassionate male nurse was the most touching, by far. PT Anderson wrote the part specifically for him just like he did with Julianne Moore's character in Boogie Nights. Speaking of Julianne Moore, the scene between her and Hoffman in Magnolia is one of my personal favourites - i tear up everytime.
The scene in question begins at the 4 minute mark or so of this clip, but the whole thing is worth watching for Julianne Moore's amazingly unhinged and profane performance!!
Thursday, November 18, 2010
suddenly, i just came to the realization that Sarah Palin is going to run for President in 2012. it just seems so fitting, what with that reality show and the work she's doing with Fox News. I am so scared. Not even God could save the world should she get elected President of the United States. Very, very real possibility of calamity.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Halloween Stress!
Argh! The BP logo patch i ordered off Ebay 2 weeks ago for my Halloween costume hasn't arrived yet. only a couple more business days before Saturday and i don't have a backup costume! Goddamn it, serves me right for ordering an essential component of my costume from a company in Malaysia 3 weeks before Halloween!!! i knew i should have just gone to Stewart/Colbert rally in DC.
Despite this, i am happy today because i'm still really enjoying the Crystal Castles' cover of Platinum Blonde's "Not in Love" remix as sung by Robert Smith; apparently even Twitter is abuzz with this song (for whatever that's worth!)
I really hope that he sticks to this more 'restrained' singing for the next Cure album. frankly, his vocals and lyrics have left something to be desired since Bloodflowers in 2000 (some would even say since Wild Mood Swings in 1996). Can't wait for a new album regardless though. i can't start to get excited yet. if there is to be one more album, and it would probably be the *real* last Cure album, it won't be released until at least 2012 (it's been an album every 4 years for the last two decades, and 4:13 Dream was released in October 2008). If it really is the last Cure album, and is released in 2012, i'm kinda ok with the whole 'world ending' bit... :D
Yesterday, i spent like 8 minutes staring at my laptop screen blankly, trying to remember the name of a band. I was SURE that there was no way i'd get it because it was pretty long (i remembered that much) and a pretty obscure band. anyway, i'm pulling my hair out, wracking my brain, going crazy trying to will myself to remember when suddenly there's this moment of clarity and it comes to me: CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN!!! YES!!! haha. pretty much the most rewarding moment of my week thus far. "The History of Utah" by Camper Van Beethoven is, without a doubt, one of the best tracks ever written. and on a different but related note, I love this song:
Despite this, i am happy today because i'm still really enjoying the Crystal Castles' cover of Platinum Blonde's "Not in Love" remix as sung by Robert Smith; apparently even Twitter is abuzz with this song (for whatever that's worth!)
I really hope that he sticks to this more 'restrained' singing for the next Cure album. frankly, his vocals and lyrics have left something to be desired since Bloodflowers in 2000 (some would even say since Wild Mood Swings in 1996). Can't wait for a new album regardless though. i can't start to get excited yet. if there is to be one more album, and it would probably be the *real* last Cure album, it won't be released until at least 2012 (it's been an album every 4 years for the last two decades, and 4:13 Dream was released in October 2008). If it really is the last Cure album, and is released in 2012, i'm kinda ok with the whole 'world ending' bit... :D
Yesterday, i spent like 8 minutes staring at my laptop screen blankly, trying to remember the name of a band. I was SURE that there was no way i'd get it because it was pretty long (i remembered that much) and a pretty obscure band. anyway, i'm pulling my hair out, wracking my brain, going crazy trying to will myself to remember when suddenly there's this moment of clarity and it comes to me: CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN!!! YES!!! haha. pretty much the most rewarding moment of my week thus far. "The History of Utah" by Camper Van Beethoven is, without a doubt, one of the best tracks ever written. and on a different but related note, I love this song:
Thursday, September 30, 2010
HEALTH
A month or so ago I found out about this band called HEALTH. Normally, i'm not a big fan of noisy, dissonant music, but their brand of it is so different and refreshing.
This is the video for my favourite song from their album 'Get Color' called We are Water. It's probably one of their more melodic tracks, but words cannot express how perfect the video and song are for one another. so well done. obviously, a little ummm...crazy? (yet somehow a little funny at the same time? is it just me?) but so so so so good!!!! best music video i have seen in years
Anyway, I really wanna see HEALTH live. i think i would actually lose my shit and start a mosh pit or something - their music makes me feel so aggressive!! haha
It's Pop Montreal time again. Hoping to catch a few shows between now and Sunday.
This is the video for my favourite song from their album 'Get Color' called We are Water. It's probably one of their more melodic tracks, but words cannot express how perfect the video and song are for one another. so well done. obviously, a little ummm...crazy? (yet somehow a little funny at the same time? is it just me?) but so so so so good!!!! best music video i have seen in years
Anyway, I really wanna see HEALTH live. i think i would actually lose my shit and start a mosh pit or something - their music makes me feel so aggressive!! haha
It's Pop Montreal time again. Hoping to catch a few shows between now and Sunday.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
full moon
wierd day, possibly due to the moon. 3 hours of overtime at work (first time in 10 years that we've ever been 3 hours behind at the end of our shift). pay is gonna be nice, but 11 hours in that building makes me fucking crazy. it's a total mess.
also, the inside of my mouth feels like i've been chewing on razorblades for the last few days.
also, the inside of my mouth feels like i've been chewing on razorblades for the last few days.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
the internet
sometimes i get a random day off during the week. Since i'm not in school this semester, i will have full days off occasionally, which is super awesome.
take today for instance. I'm sitting on my couch, head swimming with tiredness cause i had a real crap sleep - to make a long story short, i was awoken at 8 am after 3 hours of sleep by buzzsaws and hammering. turned out that they were changing the windows in the three apartments below me. they didn't change mine - i didn't ask, i just wanted sleep.
i'm kinda trapped at my place for the next few hours because i'm awaiting UPS' second delivery attempt of my most recent Amazon order. I can't wait to get my hands on House of Leaves, this book i just ordered. I'm currently a third into A Confederacy of Dunces, which i'm enjoying very much so far (i haven't loled while reading this much since trainspotting) but I absolutely can't wait to dive into House of Leaves - i'm sure i'll be writing a lengthy blurb about it sometime soon.
so anyway i'm being totally lazy, just lurking on Reddit and i stumble onto this thread which is a mindfuck on its own, but that's besides the point. so, i'm reading the comments which branch out ad infinitum as usual and someone links a youtube clip of the no-legs subway guy from Kids and that gets me reminiscing about Kids, cause i really liked that movie in my early teens (larry clark has sorta gone downhill in my esteem since then, but i digress) and that gets me to thinking about the guy who played Casper, who i always thought was quite cute and foul-mouthed. Then i remember that he killed himself so i head to imdb to check out his page to see how he did it and that leads me to the imdb message threads on his profile, in which a poster mentions the movie Less Than Zero, which kind of sounds familiar, but i know i've never seen it. I'm downloading it and really anxious to watch it. Robert Downey Jr. when he was still fucked up in the late 80's and the hotness of James Spader.
This is the sort of thing that makes me realize how cool the internet is.
take today for instance. I'm sitting on my couch, head swimming with tiredness cause i had a real crap sleep - to make a long story short, i was awoken at 8 am after 3 hours of sleep by buzzsaws and hammering. turned out that they were changing the windows in the three apartments below me. they didn't change mine - i didn't ask, i just wanted sleep.
i'm kinda trapped at my place for the next few hours because i'm awaiting UPS' second delivery attempt of my most recent Amazon order. I can't wait to get my hands on House of Leaves, this book i just ordered. I'm currently a third into A Confederacy of Dunces, which i'm enjoying very much so far (i haven't loled while reading this much since trainspotting) but I absolutely can't wait to dive into House of Leaves - i'm sure i'll be writing a lengthy blurb about it sometime soon.
so anyway i'm being totally lazy, just lurking on Reddit and i stumble onto this thread which is a mindfuck on its own, but that's besides the point. so, i'm reading the comments which branch out ad infinitum as usual and someone links a youtube clip of the no-legs subway guy from Kids and that gets me reminiscing about Kids, cause i really liked that movie in my early teens (larry clark has sorta gone downhill in my esteem since then, but i digress) and that gets me to thinking about the guy who played Casper, who i always thought was quite cute and foul-mouthed. Then i remember that he killed himself so i head to imdb to check out his page to see how he did it and that leads me to the imdb message threads on his profile, in which a poster mentions the movie Less Than Zero, which kind of sounds familiar, but i know i've never seen it. I'm downloading it and really anxious to watch it. Robert Downey Jr. when he was still fucked up in the late 80's and the hotness of James Spader.
This is the sort of thing that makes me realize how cool the internet is.
facepalm
While Americans get cut-throat, riveting, made-for-TV politics, what does Quebec get? A three ring circus complete with clowns and elephants (who don't forget, i.e "Je me souviens").
Take, for example, the woman i hate even more than Sarah Palin : Pauline Marois, leader of the evil and backward Parti Quebecois. I can't even begin to enumerate the reasons why i feel like she is a supreme bitch, but this new declaration really take the cake.
The Montreal Canadiens needs more francophones on the team
Is nothing in this province sacred? Do we really need our political leaders to spend time, in the name of their constituency, to comment on the makeup up our HOCKEY TEAM?? and people buy into this shit. someone at work the other day was bitching and moaning about how there were only a couple of french canadian players on the team and that he didn't have anyone he could relate to. Hell, my favourite player on the team is a RUSSIAN. these separatists are a real special breed. REAL special.
Take, for example, the woman i hate even more than Sarah Palin : Pauline Marois, leader of the evil and backward Parti Quebecois. I can't even begin to enumerate the reasons why i feel like she is a supreme bitch, but this new declaration really take the cake.
The Montreal Canadiens needs more francophones on the team
Is nothing in this province sacred? Do we really need our political leaders to spend time, in the name of their constituency, to comment on the makeup up our HOCKEY TEAM?? and people buy into this shit. someone at work the other day was bitching and moaning about how there were only a couple of french canadian players on the team and that he didn't have anyone he could relate to. Hell, my favourite player on the team is a RUSSIAN. these separatists are a real special breed. REAL special.
Monday, September 6, 2010
the line between who i hate more - Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin - is beginning to blur
One Lump Or Two?
By James Howard Kunstler
on August 30, 2010 9:38 AM
Fox News entertainer, former drug addict, and professional weeper Glenn Beck took center stage at the Lincoln Memorial exactly forty-seven years to the day after Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech for a rally dedicated to "restoring honor," which is tea party code for the otherwise unutterable idea: get that n***** out of the White House! (despite the attendance of a few African-American shills on the scene).
Eighty-seven thousand disoriented citizens lined the DC Mall reflecting pool and adjoining lawns to witness Beck overstep his role as a television clown and don the mantle of an evangelist-savior battling the dark forces working insidiously to put the America of WalMart, Walt Disney World, Nascar, and Burger King into the Collapsed Society Hall of Fame -- where it's heading anyway, due to the bad choices these self-same citizens made during an extraordinary bonanza era of cheap oil that is now drawing to a close whether anyone likes it or not. Naturally, Beck invoked prayer against this prospect, which is what people resort to when they don't understand what is happening to them.
Beck himself just seems to be following a career arc more than really answering "a call." The emptiness of his platitudes and the confusion of his ideas shows that he is just flexing his demagogic muscles in a moment when weepy bluster passes for heroism. Ten years ago he was a cringing drunk contemplating suicide. Then he went shopping in America's Mall of Utopias for something to believe in and found Mormonism, a "religion" dreamed up by an imaginative young man on the agricultural frontier of western New York during an earlier age of ferment which -- guess what -- coincided with a decade of economic turbulence. (Anyone interested in the bizarre subject is advised to read Fawn Brodie's excellent biography of Smith, No Man Knows My History [Knoph,1945].)
Of course, what has allowed Beck to occupy center stage is the failure of rational political figures to articulate the terms of the convulsion that American society faces, brought about not by communists and other John Bircher hobgoblins but by the forces of history. The failure at the political center is a conscious one of nerve and will, of elected officials in both major parties playing desperately for advantage in defiance of the truth -- this truth being that the USA went broke trying to swindle itself into prosperity. Add to this the failure of the law to go after the swindlers, which has undermined the fundamental belief in the rule of law that enabled this society to function as well as it did previously.
Barack Obama personifies this failure these days, a politician proclaiming "change" who not only managed to change nothing, but promoted a continuation of the national self-swindling with legislation so dazzlingly prolix and complicated that no one can claim to have read either the Health Care Reform Act or the Financial Regulation bill, the two hallmarks of his tenure so far, neither of which will change anything about how we do these things. Why Mr. Obama has turned out to be such a weenie remains a mystery. Even the former communists at Russia Today laugh at the idea that he is a "communist" or a "socialist" and so do I. He certainly appears to be hostage of the more malign forces in society these days -- the medical insurance racket, the too-big-to-fail banks, the multi-national corporations. But I don't believe it's because he wants to suck up to them, or join their country clubs when his current job ends.
My own guess is that he's been informed that the system is so fragile that if he dares to disturb even one teensy-weensy part of it -- for instance, by throwing some executives from Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, et cetera, into federal prison -- that said system will fly to pieces in a fortnight. So Obama's main task for a year and a half has been to desperately apply baling wire and duct tape to the banking system while telling fibs to the public about a wished-for recovery to a prior state. Unfortunately that prior state is the ecstasy of a self-swindle in the moments before it unravels... the sublime feeling of having gotten something wonderful for nothing. We're beyond that now and nothing on the age-old shelf of nostrums, spells, prayers, and miracle-cures will avail to bring that moment back, though the public does not know this.
This is what allows a faker like Glenn Beck to shine. The masses still truly believe that prayer will save them from bankruptcy, foreclosure, penury, the loss of status, and the cut-off of precious air-conditioning, so Glenn steps onto a national monument like an Aztec priest ascending the Pyramid of Huitzilopochtli to soothe the angry god with worshipful incantations, and incidentally maybe a few dozen sacrificial hearts cut out -- just as the tea-bagger right-wing glorifies the sacrifices of US soldiers blown up by roadside bombs for the sake of American military adventuring in lost causes like the war to turn Afghanistan into a functioning western-style democracy.
Glenn Beck's sidekick nowadays, Sarah Palin, is exactly the kind of corn pone Hitler that America deserves: a badly-educated, child-like, war-mongering opportunist easily manipulated by backstage extremist billionaires who think they don't have enough money yet. Sarah Palin is going to run for president in 2012. In the process she'll turn the sad remnants of the Republican party into a suicide cult, but she might just get elected and you can kiss the 230-year-long experiment in representative government goodbye for good.
In the meantime, the financial markets are getting ready to puke, the housing market has yet a million frauds left to unwind, the commercial real estate and retail sectors are crashing, the projects in Afghanistan, and Iraq, too (despite the current hype about the end of the combat mission there), are set to suck a few billion a day out of the system, indefinitely, and the season leading into the holidays is taking shape as a major amplification of all the converging clusterfucks that make these such interesting times. The tea-bagger faction will only get more desperately crazy as a result.
The bigger mystery in all this -- if I may perhaps engage in some nostalgia of my own -- is: what happened to reasonable, rational, educated people of purpose in this country to drive them into such burrow of cowardice that they can't speak the truth, or act decisively, or even defend themselves against such a host of vicious morons in a time of troubles?
----
see also: The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party
sometimes i wish that Canadian politics was as interesting as that of our neighbors to the south. then i remember that boring political stability may be the lesser of two evils. the issues here are just as polarizing and we're not much different than Americans, of course, maybe just a little more subtle. and less fervently religious. With Harper and his conservatives at the helm of this country, our liberties are quietly vanishing. At the moment, I feel like we are in a situation comparable to the US during Dubya's first term. I can only hope that we won't give this jerk a second go at destroying the social programs and banking reforms that the Liberal party put in place over the course of 20 some odd years. There is a reason why Canada's banking and financial sector has weathered the storm of the current global recession remarkably well. We are considered to have one of (if not the) soundest banking system on the planet, thanks mostly to regulation. I'm a big fan of regulation (within reason, ofc), and if Harper and his cronies have their way, we'd see a sweeping repeal of regulation as witnessed in the States during Dubya's tenure as commander-in-chief. At this point I'm rambling, but bottom line = Harper bad, Glenn Beck = bad, Sarah Palin = the worst. By the way, if she decides to run for the presidency in 2012 (God help our neighbors to the South) I am most definitely reviving my Halloween costume from 2008!
Scary stuff, indeed!
By James Howard Kunstler
on August 30, 2010 9:38 AM
Fox News entertainer, former drug addict, and professional weeper Glenn Beck took center stage at the Lincoln Memorial exactly forty-seven years to the day after Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech for a rally dedicated to "restoring honor," which is tea party code for the otherwise unutterable idea: get that n***** out of the White House! (despite the attendance of a few African-American shills on the scene).
Eighty-seven thousand disoriented citizens lined the DC Mall reflecting pool and adjoining lawns to witness Beck overstep his role as a television clown and don the mantle of an evangelist-savior battling the dark forces working insidiously to put the America of WalMart, Walt Disney World, Nascar, and Burger King into the Collapsed Society Hall of Fame -- where it's heading anyway, due to the bad choices these self-same citizens made during an extraordinary bonanza era of cheap oil that is now drawing to a close whether anyone likes it or not. Naturally, Beck invoked prayer against this prospect, which is what people resort to when they don't understand what is happening to them.
Beck himself just seems to be following a career arc more than really answering "a call." The emptiness of his platitudes and the confusion of his ideas shows that he is just flexing his demagogic muscles in a moment when weepy bluster passes for heroism. Ten years ago he was a cringing drunk contemplating suicide. Then he went shopping in America's Mall of Utopias for something to believe in and found Mormonism, a "religion" dreamed up by an imaginative young man on the agricultural frontier of western New York during an earlier age of ferment which -- guess what -- coincided with a decade of economic turbulence. (Anyone interested in the bizarre subject is advised to read Fawn Brodie's excellent biography of Smith, No Man Knows My History [Knoph,1945].)
Of course, what has allowed Beck to occupy center stage is the failure of rational political figures to articulate the terms of the convulsion that American society faces, brought about not by communists and other John Bircher hobgoblins but by the forces of history. The failure at the political center is a conscious one of nerve and will, of elected officials in both major parties playing desperately for advantage in defiance of the truth -- this truth being that the USA went broke trying to swindle itself into prosperity. Add to this the failure of the law to go after the swindlers, which has undermined the fundamental belief in the rule of law that enabled this society to function as well as it did previously.
Barack Obama personifies this failure these days, a politician proclaiming "change" who not only managed to change nothing, but promoted a continuation of the national self-swindling with legislation so dazzlingly prolix and complicated that no one can claim to have read either the Health Care Reform Act or the Financial Regulation bill, the two hallmarks of his tenure so far, neither of which will change anything about how we do these things. Why Mr. Obama has turned out to be such a weenie remains a mystery. Even the former communists at Russia Today laugh at the idea that he is a "communist" or a "socialist" and so do I. He certainly appears to be hostage of the more malign forces in society these days -- the medical insurance racket, the too-big-to-fail banks, the multi-national corporations. But I don't believe it's because he wants to suck up to them, or join their country clubs when his current job ends.
My own guess is that he's been informed that the system is so fragile that if he dares to disturb even one teensy-weensy part of it -- for instance, by throwing some executives from Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, et cetera, into federal prison -- that said system will fly to pieces in a fortnight. So Obama's main task for a year and a half has been to desperately apply baling wire and duct tape to the banking system while telling fibs to the public about a wished-for recovery to a prior state. Unfortunately that prior state is the ecstasy of a self-swindle in the moments before it unravels... the sublime feeling of having gotten something wonderful for nothing. We're beyond that now and nothing on the age-old shelf of nostrums, spells, prayers, and miracle-cures will avail to bring that moment back, though the public does not know this.
This is what allows a faker like Glenn Beck to shine. The masses still truly believe that prayer will save them from bankruptcy, foreclosure, penury, the loss of status, and the cut-off of precious air-conditioning, so Glenn steps onto a national monument like an Aztec priest ascending the Pyramid of Huitzilopochtli to soothe the angry god with worshipful incantations, and incidentally maybe a few dozen sacrificial hearts cut out -- just as the tea-bagger right-wing glorifies the sacrifices of US soldiers blown up by roadside bombs for the sake of American military adventuring in lost causes like the war to turn Afghanistan into a functioning western-style democracy.
Glenn Beck's sidekick nowadays, Sarah Palin, is exactly the kind of corn pone Hitler that America deserves: a badly-educated, child-like, war-mongering opportunist easily manipulated by backstage extremist billionaires who think they don't have enough money yet. Sarah Palin is going to run for president in 2012. In the process she'll turn the sad remnants of the Republican party into a suicide cult, but she might just get elected and you can kiss the 230-year-long experiment in representative government goodbye for good.
In the meantime, the financial markets are getting ready to puke, the housing market has yet a million frauds left to unwind, the commercial real estate and retail sectors are crashing, the projects in Afghanistan, and Iraq, too (despite the current hype about the end of the combat mission there), are set to suck a few billion a day out of the system, indefinitely, and the season leading into the holidays is taking shape as a major amplification of all the converging clusterfucks that make these such interesting times. The tea-bagger faction will only get more desperately crazy as a result.
The bigger mystery in all this -- if I may perhaps engage in some nostalgia of my own -- is: what happened to reasonable, rational, educated people of purpose in this country to drive them into such burrow of cowardice that they can't speak the truth, or act decisively, or even defend themselves against such a host of vicious morons in a time of troubles?
----
see also: The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party
sometimes i wish that Canadian politics was as interesting as that of our neighbors to the south. then i remember that boring political stability may be the lesser of two evils. the issues here are just as polarizing and we're not much different than Americans, of course, maybe just a little more subtle. and less fervently religious. With Harper and his conservatives at the helm of this country, our liberties are quietly vanishing. At the moment, I feel like we are in a situation comparable to the US during Dubya's first term. I can only hope that we won't give this jerk a second go at destroying the social programs and banking reforms that the Liberal party put in place over the course of 20 some odd years. There is a reason why Canada's banking and financial sector has weathered the storm of the current global recession remarkably well. We are considered to have one of (if not the) soundest banking system on the planet, thanks mostly to regulation. I'm a big fan of regulation (within reason, ofc), and if Harper and his cronies have their way, we'd see a sweeping repeal of regulation as witnessed in the States during Dubya's tenure as commander-in-chief. At this point I'm rambling, but bottom line = Harper bad, Glenn Beck = bad, Sarah Palin = the worst. By the way, if she decides to run for the presidency in 2012 (God help our neighbors to the South) I am most definitely reviving my Halloween costume from 2008!
Scary stuff, indeed!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
The Suburbs
Just got back from an awesome awesome free Arcade Fire show...I really love Arcade Fire - they represent the 514 so well on an international stage... i will expound on this at length later this summer (!)
oK. a few day later.
drunk. daddy cab rules.
i'm about to go to bed listening to the new Cure re-issue of Disintegration.
i am so fucking excited. i prolly won't be able to sleep if this album sounds as good as i think it will. finally, after 21 years, DISINTEGRATION is gonna have that meaty bass that it deserves. fuck 1989 and its fucking analog recording shit. welcome to the 21st century DISINTEGRATION, the BEST MOTHERFUCKIN ALBUM in the history of music. hey, even Pitchfork gave it a perfect 10 (that counts for something)... i'm prolly too drunk to appreciate the epicness of this moment, but whatever........
oK. a few day later.
drunk. daddy cab rules.
i'm about to go to bed listening to the new Cure re-issue of Disintegration.
i am so fucking excited. i prolly won't be able to sleep if this album sounds as good as i think it will. finally, after 21 years, DISINTEGRATION is gonna have that meaty bass that it deserves. fuck 1989 and its fucking analog recording shit. welcome to the 21st century DISINTEGRATION, the BEST MOTHERFUCKIN ALBUM in the history of music. hey, even Pitchfork gave it a perfect 10 (that counts for something)... i'm prolly too drunk to appreciate the epicness of this moment, but whatever........
Thursday, May 20, 2010
so it goes...
no matter what bullshit life throws at you, there's nothing more comforting than being able to wake up in the morning with a smile on your face and good friends in your corner. that's all that really matters in the end.
hit a little speedbump in my summer of awesomeness, but it's nothing i can't handle. there's so much to look forward to, it's pretty staggering. Re-issue of Disintegration, new Arcade Fire album and Osheaga performance, lots of cabin action and camping, not to mention bike rides and swims and hikes and maybe a little LSD thrown in for good measure!
A little bullshit is a small price to pay to be reminded of how awesome your friends and family are - the important things are so easily overlooked or taken for granted.
hit a little speedbump in my summer of awesomeness, but it's nothing i can't handle. there's so much to look forward to, it's pretty staggering. Re-issue of Disintegration, new Arcade Fire album and Osheaga performance, lots of cabin action and camping, not to mention bike rides and swims and hikes and maybe a little LSD thrown in for good measure!
A little bullshit is a small price to pay to be reminded of how awesome your friends and family are - the important things are so easily overlooked or taken for granted.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
game 7 up in the biatch!!
So I have barely posted about hockey this season due to feeling a little detached from team during the regular season. all the new faces, new coach, new system, etc... not to mention the general crapiness of this last regular season.
Come playoff time though, this all started to change.We are 2 hours away from game 7 of the 2nd round. This would be the furthest the Habs made it into the playoffs s9ince i starting watching hockey religiously in 2001.
Win or lose, I am so proud of the team and have been guilty of not having faith several times over the course of the last 13 playoff games. Well, I think we can do it, but even if we don't, there will be booze and friends to take comfort in!
GO HABS GO!
Come playoff time though, this all started to change.We are 2 hours away from game 7 of the 2nd round. This would be the furthest the Habs made it into the playoffs s9ince i starting watching hockey religiously in 2001.
Win or lose, I am so proud of the team and have been guilty of not having faith several times over the course of the last 13 playoff games. Well, I think we can do it, but even if we don't, there will be booze and friends to take comfort in!
GO HABS GO!
Monday, April 12, 2010
Saturday, April 10, 2010
for a friend
he breaks the spell still young
awakes from out this dream of life
and leaves us sleeping
storm racked blind consumed
by phantom pale displays of grief
he slips from out this shadow land of pain
where heads grow sorrow grey
and age destroys all hope
and spirits crushed
lament and hide away
but wordless watch the soft sky smile
and breathless hear the low wind sigh
"what death may join no more let life divide"
"dream yourself awake" he calls
"eternity awaits us all
open your eyes and be with me
be with me... "
he breaks the chains still young
dispels the hateful shades of treacherous time
and leaves us sleeping
tortured mute
devoured by ghostly shapes of life
he slips from ties of dust
to be the world we dream he lives
a part of everything we feel
the young and beautiful
and brave of heart
but wordless watch the soft sky smile
and breathless hear the low wind sigh
"what death may join no more let life divide"
"dream yourself awake" he calls
"eternity awaits us all
open your eyes and be with me
be with me... "
"dream yourself awake" he calls
"eternity awaits us all
open your eyes and be with me
forever... "
What a fucking shame...
The Cure - Adonais
awakes from out this dream of life
and leaves us sleeping
storm racked blind consumed
by phantom pale displays of grief
he slips from out this shadow land of pain
where heads grow sorrow grey
and age destroys all hope
and spirits crushed
lament and hide away
but wordless watch the soft sky smile
and breathless hear the low wind sigh
"what death may join no more let life divide"
"dream yourself awake" he calls
"eternity awaits us all
open your eyes and be with me
be with me... "
he breaks the chains still young
dispels the hateful shades of treacherous time
and leaves us sleeping
tortured mute
devoured by ghostly shapes of life
he slips from ties of dust
to be the world we dream he lives
a part of everything we feel
the young and beautiful
and brave of heart
but wordless watch the soft sky smile
and breathless hear the low wind sigh
"what death may join no more let life divide"
"dream yourself awake" he calls
"eternity awaits us all
open your eyes and be with me
be with me... "
"dream yourself awake" he calls
"eternity awaits us all
open your eyes and be with me
forever... "
What a fucking shame...
The Cure - Adonais
Friday, April 9, 2010
Friday, April 2, 2010
...
well, it could have been fun.
looks like i'm stuck by myself for the next long while. i guess i'm used to it by now.
serious apartment hunting begins today.
looks like i'm stuck by myself for the next long while. i guess i'm used to it by now.
serious apartment hunting begins today.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
this is the best and most accurate writeup on Pisces that I've ever read
(a little cheesy at times, but we are talking about astrology after all...)
You are a Pisces
It's impossible to understand your real motivations, because like the tides of the ocean, they change all the time. Pisces is concerned with a realm that has no boundaries. Nothing less than the source of life itself is the secret you seek. No wonder, if you fail, that your disillusionment and world-weariness can be as great as your aspirations. It's sometimes said this last sign of the zodiac contains a little bit of all the others. And no one is as much of a chameleon as you.
You have a fluidity and complexity which can be alternatively enchanting and infuriating. There are so many people inside you that others wonder when the real Pisces will stand up and be seen. Sometimes you show a strange passivity or inertia when a crisis looms. But making decisions requires choosing one thing over another, and to you all choices contain some truth. Seeing the relativity of truth is a great gift, because it makes you tolerant and forgiving - and, occasionally, incredibly lax.
That calm, wise indifference with which you greet human transgressions not only applies to your own transgressions. You can sit quietly while your lover leaves, your children insult you, your employer heaps abuse on your head, and your landlord throws you out of your house. Pisceans seem to accept misfortune as though they were born to it, expect it, even welcome it. But you know something other signs don't: all that human suffering means little when your eyes and heart are focused on a greater unity.
Pisces is the sign of the mystic. Admittedly, there are Pisceans roaming about who are almost a caricature of the rational, scientific mind. These are the Fishes who are frightened of the chaos of their own depths. But probe more deeply, and unless the defences are incredibly rigid, there is a deep spiritual longing in every Pisces. Including you. That doesn't mean religious in an orthodox way. But you have an intuitive sense of some other reality, something magical and elusive, a transcendent unity which makes ordinary life seem drab and meaningless.
You also have a deep instinctive wisdom about the futility of so many human desires. Intense ambition, powerful passions, covetousness, greed...these ordinary human motives don't usually have much power over you. Deep down, you don't really take them all that seriously. After all, as they say in the East, it's only maya - only illusion. As a water sign, you're deeply sensitive to the secret undercurrents that lie behind the mask of ordinary human behaviour.
It's hard to fool a Pisces. But where others might respond by defending themselves and accruing resentment, you will look, see, feel saddened, and forgive. You often let yourself be taken advantage of, not because you're gullible, but because you feel sorry for all sorts of people. This material world isn't the real one to you; you listen to a different drumbeat.
You move in a world where every thought and action has thousands of associations which ripple out into infinity, and nothing is ever simple and clear. It's hard for you to discriminate, to limit yourself. This can incline you to excess, which can lead to some big problems with things like food, alcohol, drugs or financial extravagance. The compensation for this disturbing lack of boundaries is your boundless imagination. Even heavily defended, hyper-rational Pisceans have this wonderful imaginative faculty hidden away.
The world of the arts, and of intuitive science (including computer science, higher mathematics and physics) is heavily populated by gifted Pisceans. You have a built-in key to the vast and mysterious realm of the unconscious psyche, and it was given to you at birth as a gift. The trouble is, once in those waters, you sometimes find it hard to come back. Coping with mundane reality can be a real problem for Pisceans. Although your intuition may be lightning-quick and your intellect brilliant, you often overlook something simple, like the electricity bill.
You're also an incurable romantic. Some Pisceans have lots of defences to hide this tendency, but romantic you were born and romantic you will remain. And romance isn't just about love affairs. You crave magic, and you get bored more easily than any other sign. The only truly consistent things about you are your allegiance to a higher, deeper reality and your love and longing for change. Never mind the safe job, the conventional social status, the budget which ensures your pension will see you through old age. You'll take hyacinths for the soul any time.
from here
You are a Pisces
It's impossible to understand your real motivations, because like the tides of the ocean, they change all the time. Pisces is concerned with a realm that has no boundaries. Nothing less than the source of life itself is the secret you seek. No wonder, if you fail, that your disillusionment and world-weariness can be as great as your aspirations. It's sometimes said this last sign of the zodiac contains a little bit of all the others. And no one is as much of a chameleon as you.
You have a fluidity and complexity which can be alternatively enchanting and infuriating. There are so many people inside you that others wonder when the real Pisces will stand up and be seen. Sometimes you show a strange passivity or inertia when a crisis looms. But making decisions requires choosing one thing over another, and to you all choices contain some truth. Seeing the relativity of truth is a great gift, because it makes you tolerant and forgiving - and, occasionally, incredibly lax.
That calm, wise indifference with which you greet human transgressions not only applies to your own transgressions. You can sit quietly while your lover leaves, your children insult you, your employer heaps abuse on your head, and your landlord throws you out of your house. Pisceans seem to accept misfortune as though they were born to it, expect it, even welcome it. But you know something other signs don't: all that human suffering means little when your eyes and heart are focused on a greater unity.
Pisces is the sign of the mystic. Admittedly, there are Pisceans roaming about who are almost a caricature of the rational, scientific mind. These are the Fishes who are frightened of the chaos of their own depths. But probe more deeply, and unless the defences are incredibly rigid, there is a deep spiritual longing in every Pisces. Including you. That doesn't mean religious in an orthodox way. But you have an intuitive sense of some other reality, something magical and elusive, a transcendent unity which makes ordinary life seem drab and meaningless.
You also have a deep instinctive wisdom about the futility of so many human desires. Intense ambition, powerful passions, covetousness, greed...these ordinary human motives don't usually have much power over you. Deep down, you don't really take them all that seriously. After all, as they say in the East, it's only maya - only illusion. As a water sign, you're deeply sensitive to the secret undercurrents that lie behind the mask of ordinary human behaviour.
It's hard to fool a Pisces. But where others might respond by defending themselves and accruing resentment, you will look, see, feel saddened, and forgive. You often let yourself be taken advantage of, not because you're gullible, but because you feel sorry for all sorts of people. This material world isn't the real one to you; you listen to a different drumbeat.
You move in a world where every thought and action has thousands of associations which ripple out into infinity, and nothing is ever simple and clear. It's hard for you to discriminate, to limit yourself. This can incline you to excess, which can lead to some big problems with things like food, alcohol, drugs or financial extravagance. The compensation for this disturbing lack of boundaries is your boundless imagination. Even heavily defended, hyper-rational Pisceans have this wonderful imaginative faculty hidden away.
The world of the arts, and of intuitive science (including computer science, higher mathematics and physics) is heavily populated by gifted Pisceans. You have a built-in key to the vast and mysterious realm of the unconscious psyche, and it was given to you at birth as a gift. The trouble is, once in those waters, you sometimes find it hard to come back. Coping with mundane reality can be a real problem for Pisceans. Although your intuition may be lightning-quick and your intellect brilliant, you often overlook something simple, like the electricity bill.
You're also an incurable romantic. Some Pisceans have lots of defences to hide this tendency, but romantic you were born and romantic you will remain. And romance isn't just about love affairs. You crave magic, and you get bored more easily than any other sign. The only truly consistent things about you are your allegiance to a higher, deeper reality and your love and longing for change. Never mind the safe job, the conventional social status, the budget which ensures your pension will see you through old age. You'll take hyacinths for the soul any time.
from here
Sunday, March 7, 2010
the years tend to accumulate
good birthday celebration this year. pretty much everyone that mattered showed up, with a few exceptions...
i'm nice and birthday drunk. gonna listen to Seventeen Seconds and pass the fuck out!
i'm nice and birthday drunk. gonna listen to Seventeen Seconds and pass the fuck out!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!
holy shit...
oh my god....
WHERE HAS THIS BAND BEEN ALL MY LIFE?!
ok, i'd heard of And Also the Trees before today, because of their close ties to The Cure in the early 80's. I'd heard a few of their songs before, which for some reason were instrumentals, and I was kind of unimpressed. Anyway, I stumble upon them yesterday and I just took a 2 hour walk in the sun listening to them and...I think they are my second favourite band. I don't even know the singer's name yet but his lyrics are so fucking awesome!!! SO GOOOD!!! and the guitar is soooooo early 80's robert smith / flanger / chorus / delay Fender 6 string bass. Hot damn I'm excited!! hahaha
even the fact that it's my birthday tomorrow can't get me down!!
The man is a fucking genius!!! a seemingly pretentious one, but then again, all the best ones are.
The stuff is pretty dark so it obviously isn't for every day listening, however, it's really shimmery and beautiful too. it kind of makes me think of summer for some reason. also, the singer's delivery is really, really interesting. His voice is good (not great), but he has the most interesting style.
This song is my favourite so far. He kinda sounds like a much less Scottish version of Aidan from Arab Strap. does anyone write lyrics like this anymore?! Studio version is better, but this one has been remastered.
Gone like the Swallows
Balancing on the wind
Leaning on the cliff edge wind, in limbo
He watched sand running through the fingers
of his left hand into the palm of his right
He sees someone walking in a hot dry wasteland
Young, hesitant steps
Recognised her crooked fringe and narrow eyes
Threadbare, summer patterned, dirty cotton flowered dress
Scratched ankles and nail bitten hands
Wanted to touch her cool brown hair
But she was gone...
And his old tired face was as still as ever
An aeroplane hummed high up in the sky
Way up above the clouds
A green teapot, a pair of boots
A broken pocket, watch and chain
A born dead baby pig
Lying, pure white... bloodless
Soft and smooth as a gloved lady's hand
A spinning wheel, a bill hook
An umbrella, empty bottles, a tin bath
A hat stand and a slate grey pill box hat
Sailed past his grabbing hands
And were gone... like the swallows
Stuttered words, stuttered words
Voices asking questions he cannot hear
Come and find us
Step back or you'll fall
But the aeroplane is humming so loud now
Trying to cling to the summer cotton
Light threadbare patterned sleeveless
Flowered dirty carnation sunflower
Sweatstained primrose threadbare
Dirty disappearing decaying flowered
Fading cotton forgotten fucking summer dress(!!!!)
But it was gone...
Gone like the swallows
Fucking EPIC!!!!!!
oh my god....
WHERE HAS THIS BAND BEEN ALL MY LIFE?!
ok, i'd heard of And Also the Trees before today, because of their close ties to The Cure in the early 80's. I'd heard a few of their songs before, which for some reason were instrumentals, and I was kind of unimpressed. Anyway, I stumble upon them yesterday and I just took a 2 hour walk in the sun listening to them and...I think they are my second favourite band. I don't even know the singer's name yet but his lyrics are so fucking awesome!!! SO GOOOD!!! and the guitar is soooooo early 80's robert smith / flanger / chorus / delay Fender 6 string bass. Hot damn I'm excited!! hahaha
even the fact that it's my birthday tomorrow can't get me down!!
The man is a fucking genius!!! a seemingly pretentious one, but then again, all the best ones are.
The stuff is pretty dark so it obviously isn't for every day listening, however, it's really shimmery and beautiful too. it kind of makes me think of summer for some reason. also, the singer's delivery is really, really interesting. His voice is good (not great), but he has the most interesting style.
This song is my favourite so far. He kinda sounds like a much less Scottish version of Aidan from Arab Strap. does anyone write lyrics like this anymore?! Studio version is better, but this one has been remastered.
Gone like the Swallows
Balancing on the wind
Leaning on the cliff edge wind, in limbo
He watched sand running through the fingers
of his left hand into the palm of his right
He sees someone walking in a hot dry wasteland
Young, hesitant steps
Recognised her crooked fringe and narrow eyes
Threadbare, summer patterned, dirty cotton flowered dress
Scratched ankles and nail bitten hands
Wanted to touch her cool brown hair
But she was gone...
And his old tired face was as still as ever
An aeroplane hummed high up in the sky
Way up above the clouds
A green teapot, a pair of boots
A broken pocket, watch and chain
A born dead baby pig
Lying, pure white... bloodless
Soft and smooth as a gloved lady's hand
A spinning wheel, a bill hook
An umbrella, empty bottles, a tin bath
A hat stand and a slate grey pill box hat
Sailed past his grabbing hands
And were gone... like the swallows
Stuttered words, stuttered words
Voices asking questions he cannot hear
Come and find us
Step back or you'll fall
But the aeroplane is humming so loud now
Trying to cling to the summer cotton
Light threadbare patterned sleeveless
Flowered dirty carnation sunflower
Sweatstained primrose threadbare
Dirty disappearing decaying flowered
Fading cotton forgotten fucking summer dress(!!!!)
But it was gone...
Gone like the swallows
Fucking EPIC!!!!!!
And Also the Trees - Virus Meadow
Rattled chime, slow ringing echo
Roll around in virus meadow
Suck enchanted nightshade twine
Hear the bells beneath us chime
Sinking sermon, priest head murmurs
Holywords across the meadows
Kissed the plagues' black rolling hand
Through his lips the virus sang
And the rooks, they seemed to follow him
Wherever he goes
Flapping in the flat sky
Shrieking in the spire
Hanging from the lead sky
Dangling from the sun
The rooks, they seemed to follow him
Wherever he goes
Nodding thistle, english sun dew
Swansneck woman, child-bed meadow
Aching shoulders sink and grow
As the bells from ditches toll
And the smeared skin wrapped limbs
Of the night brothers
Struggling.... crawling
Through the empty crack of morning
Of the night brothers...
Of the night brothers....
Roll around in virus meadow
Suck enchanted nightshade twine
Hear the bells beneath us chime
Sinking sermon, priest head murmurs
Holywords across the meadows
Kissed the plagues' black rolling hand
Through his lips the virus sang
And the rooks, they seemed to follow him
Wherever he goes
Flapping in the flat sky
Shrieking in the spire
Hanging from the lead sky
Dangling from the sun
The rooks, they seemed to follow him
Wherever he goes
Nodding thistle, english sun dew
Swansneck woman, child-bed meadow
Aching shoulders sink and grow
As the bells from ditches toll
And the smeared skin wrapped limbs
Of the night brothers
Struggling.... crawling
Through the empty crack of morning
Of the night brothers...
Of the night brothers....
Saturday, February 13, 2010
OMG HAHAHA EPIC FAIL LOL
This is the perfect summary of the clusterfuck that was the Vancouver Opening Ceremonies.. from reddit:
zoziw 7 points 1 hour ago* [-]
"What the hell is going on?
We have a luge track that kills people.
We gave the first nations leaders "Head of State" status, and then they show up late leaving our GG and PM in a half empty dignitary box and broadcaster's trying to figure out why things seem to have gone off track.
There was an overlong First Nations welcome as they slowly dance out in a disorganized fashion...I've seen First Nations people dance many times and been very impressed, but not tonight.
Neither flag opens properly.
Bryan Adams and Nelly Furtado should never sing a duet together again.
The middle section was beautiful, the Orcas were great as was the showcase of Canada. Sarah McLachlan was great as well.
Then you have the fat guy making us look like a bunch of self righteous jerks and taking pointless cheap shots at the Americans with "we say zed not zee" and that Canada is an experiment that is "actually working".
The GG declares the games open...Yaaay!!! The games are on...oh wait, we need to sit through a slow and somber Leonard Cohen cover by kd f'n lang!
The hydraulics failed on the indoor torch rising. Steve Nash might have been smiling, but we could all see the "oh shit" expression on his face.
They stick Wayne Gretzky, one of our greatest athletes, in the back of a Silverado and drive him through the pouring rain for 20 minutes to light the final cauldron. I saw him almost slip at least twice.
Oh, and just for good measure...the whole entire world is watching.
Today was not a good day and tonight was not a good night."
zoziw 7 points 1 hour ago* [-]
"What the hell is going on?
We have a luge track that kills people.
We gave the first nations leaders "Head of State" status, and then they show up late leaving our GG and PM in a half empty dignitary box and broadcaster's trying to figure out why things seem to have gone off track.
There was an overlong First Nations welcome as they slowly dance out in a disorganized fashion...I've seen First Nations people dance many times and been very impressed, but not tonight.
Neither flag opens properly.
Bryan Adams and Nelly Furtado should never sing a duet together again.
The middle section was beautiful, the Orcas were great as was the showcase of Canada. Sarah McLachlan was great as well.
Then you have the fat guy making us look like a bunch of self righteous jerks and taking pointless cheap shots at the Americans with "we say zed not zee" and that Canada is an experiment that is "actually working".
The GG declares the games open...Yaaay!!! The games are on...oh wait, we need to sit through a slow and somber Leonard Cohen cover by kd f'n lang!
The hydraulics failed on the indoor torch rising. Steve Nash might have been smiling, but we could all see the "oh shit" expression on his face.
They stick Wayne Gretzky, one of our greatest athletes, in the back of a Silverado and drive him through the pouring rain for 20 minutes to light the final cauldron. I saw him almost slip at least twice.
Oh, and just for good measure...the whole entire world is watching.
Today was not a good day and tonight was not a good night."
Friday, January 29, 2010
She calls the doctor, says "look what i've done"
There's this Jesus Lizard song i love called "lady shoes". it's my favorite JL song. I just got the urge to check out the lyrics and WOW! i had no idea.... This is like "Prison Sex" by Tool X 1000!!!
Still love the song mind you, but eeeesh... i feel dirty after reading that!
The Jesus Lizard Lady Shoes lyrics
There's a girl, playing her piano, there's a little girl,
playing her big piano
While her mother gives her an enema, while her mother
While her mother gives her an enema, while her mother
And then the daddy comes in and jacks off on the piano,
and jacks off on the piano
And jacks off on the piano, and jacks off on the piano
Meanwhile, the local maternity ward,
nurse comes in with a great big sledgehammer
She kills all the little babies,
destroys the monitoring system
Says she got some time to stick around
She calls the doctor, said look what I've done
She calls the doctor, said look what I've done
She calls the doctor, said look what I've done
Doctor comes in, pops a boner and jacks off in her cap
And then the motel manager comes by
And takes a little shit in his hand,
and then he takes a little shit in his hand
And then he takes a little shit in his hand
And the he puts it on like lipstick, lipstick,
he puts it on like lipstick, lipstick
Still love the song mind you, but eeeesh... i feel dirty after reading that!
The Jesus Lizard Lady Shoes lyrics
There's a girl, playing her piano, there's a little girl,
playing her big piano
While her mother gives her an enema, while her mother
While her mother gives her an enema, while her mother
And then the daddy comes in and jacks off on the piano,
and jacks off on the piano
And jacks off on the piano, and jacks off on the piano
Meanwhile, the local maternity ward,
nurse comes in with a great big sledgehammer
She kills all the little babies,
destroys the monitoring system
Says she got some time to stick around
She calls the doctor, said look what I've done
She calls the doctor, said look what I've done
She calls the doctor, said look what I've done
Doctor comes in, pops a boner and jacks off in her cap
And then the motel manager comes by
And takes a little shit in his hand,
and then he takes a little shit in his hand
And then he takes a little shit in his hand
And the he puts it on like lipstick, lipstick,
he puts it on like lipstick, lipstick
Monday, January 18, 2010
i've got a lot of friends
I LOVE this song. makes me wanna lie in bed with my headphones and listen to Mazzy Star albums all night...
I know just what your mama said
Always misunderstood
Gotta tell you something
I saw it in your eyes
I think I left your back seat
And now it's always good
I fell asleep from day
And all the promises
There's a lot of people
That let their will to say
I've got a lot of friends
And they've got beautiful eyes
That make my heart feel surprised
And you notice it
And that's the truth
That's the truth
Have me to you
I shine along underneath your view
I'll be the one
To let you know when you've come undone
I like the stars in the sky
And watch the moonlight go by
I've got a lot of friends
I know just what your mama said
Always misunderstood
Gotta tell you something
I saw it in your eyes
I think I left your back seat
And now it's always good
I fell asleep from day
And all the promises
There's a lot of people
That let their will to say
I've got a lot of friends
And they've got beautiful eyes
That make my heart feel surprised
And you notice it
And that's the truth
That's the truth
Have me to you
I shine along underneath your view
I'll be the one
To let you know when you've come undone
I like the stars in the sky
And watch the moonlight go by
I've got a lot of friends
Thursday, January 7, 2010
2010!!!!!!!!!
Apart from my travels, 2009 sucked!!!! I'm pretty confident that this year will be much better.
I just started listening to this 80's band called Japan. I'd kinda heard of them, but never really heard them. This song kicks so much ass (the bass player's neck gyrations just make the video, though!!)
I just started listening to this 80's band called Japan. I'd kinda heard of them, but never really heard them. This song kicks so much ass (the bass player's neck gyrations just make the video, though!!)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)