lovely art
Because I love Andrea Dorfman (the director of this video) so much, and because the video is so lovely, I’m stealing it from Kickpleat so you all get to see it!
Enjoy!
five fun (very hopeful) things #04
If you’re in a celebratory mood (and even though I’m a Canadian, I know I am) here’s some links to revel in:
- Inside Barack Obama’s iPod
He has excellent taste in music – he loves Stevie Wonder. So do I Barry, so do I.
- Beautiful pictures from the Obama campaign
My all time favourite picture of Obama, is the one of him hanging from a bar in a gymnasium, doing a pull-up (I think it’s pretty symbolic of not just strength, and resolve, but also a good sense of humour) but really there’s a lot of photogenic to go around with this guy.
- The Speech
A thorough examination of Obama’s breakthrough 2004 DNC speech. A must-read for anyone interested in not only, how this whole thing got started in the first place, but how Obama’s rhetorical skills were honed (am I the only speech-geek in the room? Yes? Oh. Well, I blame Aaron Sorkin).
- A More Perfect Union
His speech on race gave me chills and tears in equal measure, but I do love a good oratory. If you haven’t watched/read it yet, now’s probably the time to do so.
- Barack Obama, Forever Sizing Up
A interesting exploration of the personality and possibilities of the future President that will be.
exciting news everyone!
I designed and illustrated an album cover!
It’s been printed and pressed, and the band – a little outfit cleverly named Provincial Parks – is having a party to celebrate – so you should be there. I will be there, anyways. I would like a copy of my work – and the music inside it’s pretty awesome too (sort of a sparkly-shiny indie rock with some poppy undertones) so I’m excited about getting a copy of that as well.
scandinavians will save us all
I don’t get how the Euro’s are doing it, but it’s getting to the point where I’m not really bothering to listen to music if it didn’t come from a country where they eat a lot of smoked fish.
Alphabeat are makers of such music. There are pretty much a billion ways I could describe them, so I’m just going to mention the most fun ones:
A Scandinavian S Club 7 with Cyndi Lauper meets George Micheal vocals? Sure.
The Thrills – but from Denmark instead of Ireland and obsessed with New Wave instead of Surf Rock? Yep, that one’s good.
Infectiously-sugar-coated, eighties-pop-tinged, happy-music from the land of modernist teak furniture? That pretty much sums it up, actually.
They also have a pretty cool typographic motif going on, not to mention the cute outfit factor (them being Dansk and all, it’s pretty high).
I dare you to watch this video and not get into a cheery mood.
eye candy
This is the best outfit I have ever seen on a celebrity (Lily Allen, BTW).
Pink!
Turquoise!
Sparkles!
Bambi!
Who’s her stylist? Hello Kitty?
It’s all sooooo cute! If i had gotten married at the age of 11, I probably would have worn exactly that, pink hair and all. Actually, I will probably still wear something like that when I do get married in the next couple years. I just can’t help it, when I see vibrant pastels like that all in one place, it just makes me happy. It must take me back to some childhood place where Rainbow Brite and Jem and the Holograms still scamper about.
Also adorable: the apology she put on her blog for gettting drunk that night
And I Quote:
“Last time I wrote here, I was defending my honor and dignity, explaining my innocence and also outrage at the press for insinuating my behaviour was embarrassing. This time I’m putting my hands up, I got very drunk last night, too drunk. It’s not cool getting that drunk, I feel awful and I have to thank my little brother Alf for getting me home safely.
Kids, drink responsibly or you’ll end up looking like this, not pretty! Was quite fun though, from what I can remember. Need fry up now.”
Celebrities, they make mistakes just like us!
(Except in much, much better outfits).
yelle
If you watched the Hills this week, then you probably rocked out a bit to that great French pop they played in between sweeping shots of the Eiffel tower.
Well, I am here to lead you to the source of it’s awesomeness. Although frankly, Jezebel beat me to it.
Her name Yelle, and she reminds me a heck of a lot of a certain other talented young European as she has a penchant for wacky – yet surprisingly flattering – Euro trash fashions and sweet and poppy elecro.
But where Robyn is like Bjork meets Gwen Stefani as raised by Missy, Yelle is like the secret French love child Peaches and Princess Superstar were always meant to have, with Francoise Hardy as her godmother.
When I watched horribly dubbed European childrens shows on TVO as a child, I never imagined that all those wacky/tacky clothes and all that cheesy Casio music would come back to haunt me in the most fabulous way possible.
How do Europeans get away with being so sophisticated all of a sudden, by doing the same things they’ve always done? We used to at least have their weird clothes and musical tastes to make fun of, even if everything else they did was pretty much superior in every way. Great, now you guys have a sizzling economy, unparalleled culture, excellent social programs, and all the good pop music and outfits. Unfair guys, unfair.
(Sidebar: If you’re unfamiliar with Francoise Hardy you should click on this link ’cause Francoise Hardy is the bomb. I can never get over how pretty she was, and how modern she looked and sounded – fourty years ago BTW – and she’s pretty much even hotter now that she’s older – hrmmm… maybe the French have always been good at the whole music and outfits thing…)
former pop-tartlet makes good
I don’t usually post videos, but I keep running across this same artist’s stuff, and I am totally in love with her:
Her name is Robyn, she’s Swedish, and she used be a teeny-bopper pop-star in the mid nineties (remember “Show Me Love”? It was pretty ubiquitous at one point. Still hear it from time to time on adult-contempo radio). During the nineties her producer/song writer/Svengali was fellow swede Max Martin – Yes, that Max Martin, of later Britney infamy.
Eventually Robyn, not surprisingly, grew a little tired of being marketed as a pop-tartlet by her record company. But rather than put out a whiny new single about being misunderstood, or how hard being rich and famous is, she dumped her label and started her own.
Then she gave herself a asymmetrical bleach blond haircut; started wearing crazy outfits usually seen on more avant-garde artists (like a dress made to look like a Wurlitzer juke box); and started writing all her own material, collaborating with all the hip, young, up-and-coming producers and DJs Europe has to offer. Pretty awesome right? Now as a result, she’s the hottest thing in the British press, which means her total world dominance should be forthcoming shortly.
She’s pretty much Bjork and Gwen’s long lost Swedish love-child as raised by Missy. In other words: what’s not to love? She’s totally adorable in a wacky, Scandinavian sort of way and she’s got the chops to back it up.
Best of all, her music is danceable and her videos are fresh and arty, even Michel Gondry-esque. I made a playlist of the best on YouTube, so go check em’ out.
big girl blogger
Guess what?!?!?!?!
I just had a MAJOR celebrity sighting.
Not major as in: they are my idol, I love them and I care though.
Major as in: Perez is the new fugly.
Major as in…
Wait for it…
Mr. Ex Hilary Duff…
Nicole Richie’s rumored baby daddy…
Mr. Joel Madden himself!!!
I think he was with the rest of his band too, but I don’t recognize them because I don’t see their faces plastered all over the checkout aisle when getting groceries.
I did not break out my camera phone, because I am a nice Canadian girl and we don’t do things like that.
In other news that I actually care about: that charity I might be building a website for might want me to do a whole full blown branding as well! I can not tell you how exciting that is to a fledgling designer. Can not even express it. Can’t. I’m getting started RIGHT NOW.
make fun of me, please
The following is a list of the most awful things I have ever owned:
- “Northern Star” (By Melanie C)
- “Happiness is Not a Fish You Can Catch” (by Our Lady Peace)
- “Jesus Freak” (by DC Talk)
- An completely unread copy of “The Two Towers” (by JRR Tolkien)
- A completely read copy of “Fall on Your Knees”, an Oprah Book club book (by Ann Marie McDonald)
- A VHS copy of “Ever After”
- A VHS copy of “Steven Curtis Chapman: LIVE”
- At least 3 clown themed music boxes (one of which played “Send in the Clowns”, another which played “Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head”)
- A year long subscription to Focus on the Family’s magazine for teen girls: “Brio”
- Two pleather skirts. One pair of pleather pants. One pleather jacket.
- Psychadelic Daffy Duck Keds
- Fake Doc Martens
- Navy blue, yellow, lime green, pearly blue, black and at least 4 varieties of sparkly (multi, silver, purple, red, etc) nail polish. Often worn all at once.
- A logo t-shirt from American Eagle
- A fuzzy Elmo shaped backback.
I just thought you should know what you’re getting yourself into.
P.S. I also watch Grey’s Anatomy religiously.
mii mii mii mii
I am pretty much obsessed with making Mii’s (little customizable characters on the Nintendo Wii). I’m pretty good at it too.
Me and Liam. Self-explanatory
My cats. In Mii form. Yep. I’m that girl.
Hiro (from Heroes) and Bjork. Some how they both just seemed to lend themselves really thoroughly to being Mii-ized.
last night at greg graffin
First of all: Ron Hawkins showed up to open with an acoustic set!!!
I luuuuuuuurrrrrrve Ronnie! He is pretty much my favourite of all time.
That should have made my experience 100% delightful…
But I could barely hear the show.
Barely.
People yapped through the entire thing, Ron’s set, and Mr. Graffins (the one they actually came to see, on purpose!).
We had to move a couple times to get a better vantage/listening point. It was either next to the speakers (and more importantly a bunch of drunk frat boys), or at the back with a bunch of drunken concert goers who were too busy discussing how awesome Bad Religion used to be, to actually listen to the dude from Bad Religion who was actually up on stage.
Either way it was a bad scene.
The folks in the pit seemed to be having a better time, but maybe that’s just a ‘grass is always greener…’ thing.
I really did not believe that “Torontonians are bad concert goers” mumbo-jumbo until last night.
But I had never been to a concert that was totally awesome (musically speaking), and was then ruined by an obnoxious audience before.
There’s a first time for everything I guess.
It was still pretty awesome, musically speaking though. I just don’t think I could stomach it again.
Maybe someday far off when all Mr. Graffins fans are too geriatric to be rowdy…
i’m blogging for you again travis
Heads up kid, tonight we are going to go see Greg Graffin sing songs off his new folk album. I’m not sure if it’s sold out though, and it’s probably a far way for you to come on a weekday night.
But I promised, so there it is.
I’m not the Bad Religion fan (Liam is – they were a big deal for him in high school) but I liked what I heard off Mr. Graffin’s MySpace, when the full album was still up to listen to.
But then he took it down.
His backing band is the Weakerthans (sans John K. Samson) though. So to get an idea of what it sounds like, just imagine listening to sea shanties and classic folks songs played by the Weakerthans, and sung by Mr. Graffin, and you’re pretty much 98% there.
Also, you should know that I met Andy Cole on the weekend, and I didn’t even realize it. I kept bumping into this guys bag accidentally at a concert, and he got totally weirder out by it (even though we were cramped into a wet, hot, strangers basement and it was totally unavoidable). Then we both happened upon each other raving about it afterwards on Stillepost, and it turned out it was your pal Andy.
Toronto is, like, totally, a very small world, huh?
Oh, and are you actually coming to visit at some point, or are you just toying with my emotions?
more torontopian songs
The Toronto Stillepost message board has this really weird habit of sparking a discussion about something, exactly when I’ve been thinking quite deeply about it myself.
So, of course, someone over there was thinking about making a Toronto compilation, right around the time I posted mine here.
And of course, now all the music geeks are doing a very good version of putting my little list of songs to shame.
Treble Charger sang a song about Trinity Bellwoods Park? How could I have missed that?
torontopian songs
A while ago, I spent a whole day putting together a mix CD of the ultimate (relatively recent) Toronto songs. It was supposed to be for Travis Nicholson for sending me the cutest postcard from Amsterdam, but it is too good not to share (although I’m sure he will get his own copy eventually).
We have friends in town for the weekend, visiting from all the way over in Vancouver, and we are going to send a copy home with them too (I think I’m going to wait for them to blog about this weekend though, since they took pictures of our escapades.)
In order to avoid issues of bandwidth and illegalities, you will have to find/download these yourself – (though I could probably mail out a copy to a few of you if you asked real nice).
So without further ado, here is my list (it is by no means extensive but it had to fit on a two hour cd, so many cut’s were made – it was totally like Sophie’s choice):
Terminal City – Ron Hawkins And The Rusty Nails
Ron Hawkins is to Toronto as Grant-Lee Philips is to Stars Hollow. He’s totally this town’s troubadour. Here he sings about gentrification.
High School – The Flashing Lights
They were THE Toronto indie band for a while (even though they, like Sloan are originally from Halifax). This song is why.
Come for a Ride – By Divine Right
I looove this song. It reminds me of High School. This is especially suiting, because some of the members of this band went to my High School. Also, sometimes I get them confused with The Flashing lights, who sing a song called High School.
Now they are yet another casualty of Broken Social Scene.
Feist also played guitar for them for a while, apparently.
The Other Man – Sloan
Sloan is supposedly a Halifax band. But half the band lives in Toronto now, they play most of their concerts here, they got famous here and this song was written about Feist. That makes them effectively a Toronto band.
Mushaboom – Feist
It’s impossible to compile Toronto songs without brushing past a few Broken Socialites. She is one I don’t mind, and it would be pretty impossible to not mention her. I especially like this song. I think it captures a certain: Toronto cottager, let’s get outta here, frame of mind.
Poster Of A Girl – Metric
I don’t want to like Metric, but, this song is too catchy. They are somehow involved with BSS.
To The Lullabies – The Constantines
A classic styled Toronto indie band – in an old-school, rock-and-roll sense.
The Constant Lover – Magenta Lane
These chicks are hot right now. Both in the musical, and physical sense. They are not as good as the Like though.
Crabbuckit – k-os
I met k-os once at a private/industry De La Soul concert at Palais Royale. That makes me cool. Very cool. I could practically be in Broken Social Scene.
We R in Need of a Musical Revolution – Esthero
Esthero was part of that weird neo-soul/trip-hop thing that happened in Toronto a few years ago, and only Nelly Furtado managed to make a go of – which is too bad, because Esthero is pretty cool too. She has the most gorgeous voice.
F*** The Pain Away – Peaches
Apparently, Feist was Peaches’ roommate. That girl gets around.
NHS is gonna ROCK YOU – Ninja High School
One of the hottest bands to play:
a) at the boat
b) with Dollarama
PF – controller.controller
Disco rock, Toronto style.
CA Va Cool – Tangiers
Tangiers is pretty cool. I guess. They’re no Clash though.
Jealous Of Your Cigarette – Hawksley Workman
Hawksley is sexy and silly at the same time. One might sometimes see him biking down Queen Street (when he’s not holed up in Muskoka or Paris).
Weight – Sarah Slean
Sarah Slean makes me swoon.
This Lamb Sells Condos – Final Fantasy
Another song about downtown gentrification, from yet another hot Toronto band (although technically it’s not a band – technically it’s just one guy).
Mississauga Goddamn – The Hidden Cameras
No one from Toronto is really from Toronto – it’s like Manhattan that way. Rarely though, does a band write a song admitting to it’s suburban roots.
I Will Never See The Sun – Great Lake Swimmers
Total Toronto street name droppers, theses guys are.
Basement Apt. – Sarah Harmer
Living in a basement apartment is totally a Toronto thing. When you’re young and idealistic and move to the big city for the first time, you invariably end up in one.
Rosy & Grey – The Lowest of the Low
Possibly the most romantic song written about Toronto, ever, of all time.
camera obscura – live and in person
If you ever get the chance to see Camera Obscura live – GO!
We saw them at their sold-out show at the Horseshoe last night and they were amazing
It was one of those rare occurrences where the tracks off the album just do not accurately represent the awesomosity of their musicality.
Tracey Ann is also a rock goddess, in the most unexpected and surprising way. She’s all shy, deadpan, pouty and mopey, and she only smiles when she turns around to look at her band-mates, even though you just want her to smile at you because she’s soooo pretty and has the cutest little Scottish accent in the world.
And her voice, man her voice. Chills. She has a simple and honest voice, not unlike a young girl doing a solo in church, but she hits each note better than on the album, better then good. It is perfection when she sings – especially Teenager off Underacheivers Please Try Harder.
They were jetlagged, and this was the very first show of their world tour, and they do not have a “guitar monkey” (as Tracey Ann put it) to tune their instruments, so they spent a lot of time doing that – but it just gave Tracey Ann more time to interact with the audience.
She’s the kinda girl who could start insulting you and swearing up a storm and you still just look at her and say:
“Awwwww… Look at you! You’re so adorable!”
The music was clear and bright, a bit more country in person than the twee girl-group vibe you get off the record. For pretty much every song they brought out an unexpected instrument (whether it was tambourine, trumpet, or the audiences own clapping) that brightened up their simple melodies and turned each song into something whimsical, nostalgic and vaguely familiar – but new and surprising at the same time.
I’m telling you.
It’s all worth a listen and a look-see.
mr. b
A (not very good) caricature of Mr. Dollarama, back when he was more shaggy and unkempt.
Why do I have Kelly Clarkson’s magnum opus: “Since U Been Gone” stuck in my head?
I don’t listen to her, or anything that plays her music.
At very least, I’m like 14 months behind the times.
It’s always right before I try to go to sleep that these things implant in my head.
There should be a law against repetitive pop music being played anywhere near any human being less than 2 hours before bedtime.
outing
Tonight we’re headed out to Sneaky Dees for our very first visit.
Even though it’s a Toronto institution, I’ve already been told I’ll be disappointed, so I’m not expecting much (despite the fact that my one of my favourite bands the Lowest of the Low profess their love for the place, and then dedicate a song to it on their live album).
We’re going to see one of Liam’s friends from back home’s boyfriend’s band.
Their name is They Shoot Horses Don’t They (clever) and they are slowly being hyped up by indie media as we speak. Their new album (released by Kill Rock Stars) was even (badly) reviewed in a recent issue of Vice magazine.
Completely coincidentally, they also played last night in Guelph with Dollarama.
moved
I love Toronto.
I live here now.
Queen street is a block away!
I had Mexican for dinner, and the restaurant played the best of Mr. Stevie Wonder!!!
I have, like, 16 different wireless networks to steal from.
I am tired.
I have too much stuff.
sucker = me
Drawn! has had a forum for all of a very few hours, and already I’m hooked. I’m so sucked in, it’s not even funny.
Also, there’s this. What did I say about my friend Aaron getting famous someday?
Yeah.
I think when I said someday, I should have said, like, in a couple of weeks.
the Sis on 