Who would have thought? Letting go of this blog is hard to do. The new one doesn't have all the good and bad memories attached to it yet. How sentimental. Tomorrow is my birthday and motherfuckers I expect some shitty e-cards.
Moments I like in songs which I am listenning to these days
...so much that I find myself playing with my ipod in order to find the 'right moment' in those where the singer goes like '...' or the drums go like '...' and it's just perfectly perfect:
1. Alexisonfire - .44 caliber love letter When it goes silent and the singer screams 'This is a .44 caliber love letter straight from my heaaart'.
2. Earlimart - Hidden song When the drums kicks in. So good. To be listenned to when walking in the streets looking cool. Drums kicks in, you feel even cooler - and feel like you own the world.
3. Ryan Adams - La Cienega just smiled When his voice is heartbreakingly beautiful and he goes like 'Feels so good damn it makes me hurt'.
4. Ryan Adams - Afraid not scared The fucking breathtaking end where he goes like 'I'm getting really cold and I'm looking at you, you're not moving' and it goes creshendo.
5. Interpol - Stella was... When he goes like 'Stella I love you Stella I love you Stella I looove you'. A personal favourite since this summer.
6. Rufus Wainwright - The Art Teacher 'But never have I loved since then, no never have i looooved any other man', Creshendo.
7. Razorlight - Up all night The whole fucking end. I listen to this part only 564 times in a row, where the singer's voice breaks and falls
8- Kaiser Chiefs - I predict a Riot 'It's nothing pretty I tell thee' because the rhyme is so lame and so '05 Sex Pistols wannabe
9. Clap your hands say yeah! - Over and over again 'You look like David Bowie' line. Brilliant.
10. Frou Frou - Let go 'Cos there's beauty in the breakdown'
What's yours?
Whiskey works better than beer The judge is on vinyl, decisions are final And nobody gets a reprieve And every wave is tidal
Falling down like an omen, a setting sun Read the part and we turn out fine It's a hell of a role if you can keep it alive But I don't care if I fuck up
E. Smith and on this note, I am done.
Tomorrow, Oral exam about my year in Vancouver in front of 3 academics and the town's Opera director. I'm supposed to tell them how it went, and it makes for my entire year's grade. 'Well ladies and gents, I.... drank lots. Basically'.
Worth noting: Burton's Corpse bride was dope because it reminded me of Camden Town.
Well fuck yeah Canada and France have similar views on Art and 'cultural diversity' ( or as France famously calls it, Cultural exception) and they turned it this week into a treaty,
AND the project is Franco-Canadian and Canada supported France and vice versa and they fought hard for it,
AND it has been defended at the UNESCO assembly in Paris this week,
AND it was accepted and signed by EVERY COUNTRY in the world,
Except the USA (fucking Hollywood lobbies) and Israel (rely too much on US' investments) and New Zealand (wtf?)
AND it means cultural productions are not goods owned by the World Trade Org,
FUCK YOU W.T.O,
AND it means protection of cultural differences, like all these Art House FOREIGN DEPRESSING MOVIES,
AND it means dialogue between cultures
AND quite frankly it's the best of Canadian and French values mixed, the best of both worlds.
“This convention is not at all about wallowing in differences or renouncing human rights. We are defending cultural diversity—the diversity of identities—in the name of universal and humanist values. Cultural diversity is a matter of independent expression, that of artists and creators as well as peoples and societies." - French culture Minister "According to the minister, cultural diversity is also a tangible issue in that the risk of uniformity in the film, audiovisual, and cultural industries will have an impact on artistic creativity and the expression of a world vision: “According to UNESCO’s 2000 world report on culture,” he stated, “the eight leading Hollywood studios share 85% of the world market; the three biggest audiovisual firms are located in the United States (Time Warner, Viacom, and Walt Disney); nine of the world’s ten most translated authors are English-language writers; and in 2004, four companies shared the bulk of the world recording market.” The minister added that culture is not only good for the soul, cultural activities are becoming increasingly important in the creation of wealth and jobs. "
Did you know that because of this law which has been applied in France since a long time, it's easier to see movies by say Ken Loach in France rather than in UK (Loach's own country?), because 85% of movies shown in UK are American and there's no distributors for other type of movies not produced by Int' companies like Warner?
I FUCKING LOVE THIS TREATY. It goes to show there's still hope out there.
These days I feel like the kids on "MTV: Made", where high school students are forced to have crazy schedules and they end up having a neurotic crisis because they're overwhelmed with their activities. Full time student plus part time job plus thesis to start plus magazine to build = arrghhgfuckflekhrfl.
IMPORTANT:
1. If you know canadian Gen Y blogs, blogs written by Gen Y people, or about Gen Y people, or if you're a canadian Gen Y blogger and would like to help me by becoming a sociological experiment for my sociology dissertation, email me.
It will probably be about the shift from a 'Top down' perspective in the media world ('information is given to you by companies and creates a sense of common history for the baby boomer generation') to a 'bottom up' one (Gen Y will be creating the media, with blogs and alternative ways to publish and edit, and the open source movement).
* Rob told me it's when you're the busiest that your blogging style gets better. He says the less time you have, the better the writing is. I don't know if it's true, but I certainly don't have any free time these days, and yet I'm still blogging: hiatus my ass. It's when you're the busiest that ideas, as shitty as they can be, come to you.
* Well Rob also told me doing a MBA in Business was a great idea, sooooo....
* Note: Aberdeen City's Sixty lives = Best song I've heard this week, reminds me of the Dears? Scroll down and download. Aberdeen, as in the city in UK, seriously suck though.
* Best description I've heard of Interpol this month: "These guys sounds like they just play to put themselves through college, where they study Anthropology or sociology". Which I guess was almost technically true.
* So I took a 3 hours train ride this afternoon, which I spent basking in the sun, watching the landscapes listenning to my beloved Rufus Wainright. I think the best way to describe his talent is pretty, but 'pretty' has bad connotations and is not serious, important enough.
Would it make sense to any of you if I said Rufus sounds European?
As in, sophisticated.
Now I know tomorrow morning I'll open my inbox and will have a zillion angry emails saying "How dare you imply American artists are not sophisticated bla bla, bla bla"
I am the first to recognize Europeans, especially the french, are really arrogant when it comes to our culture and degree of sophistication and subtleness in all arty things. I think there is some truth in it, but it's 60 % bollocks.
But... Maybe I'm saying this because I was listenning to Rufus' song 'the Art teacher' and he talks about the Metropolitan Museum, and the paintings of Rembrandt, Turner and Rubens, all European artists.
It reminded me of what my friend Boris said about his first visit of New York. That it was as amazing as one would expect it to be, but the only place he really found peace and enjoyment was at the Moma and other museums... He said "So basically you walk for hours and hours in endless corridors and all the Art there is Egyptian, European, Asian, and then you end up in this room and you find American comtemprary art and all you can think about is WTF".
"Maybe it's because I'm European and used to these historical backgrounds of all the cities I've lived in, but I really felt something was missing and that NYC itself felt it. Like the city is searching for some sort of legitimization through an history that does not exist yet. It's obvious while visiting the MET: most of the collection comes from the Old World."
I think maybe Boris does not like Modern American Art, which I love. So I think he's wrong, but some part of his thought process is right. If culture is not infliged to its people but is lived as a second nature, a natural thing, then European have a stronger habit of coexisting with culture due to their educational process, where they're being told day after day after day that 'Europe is so great and is such a great influence on the world and oh nihilism and of existentialism and oh the Enlightment Age and oh the Revolutions'
And maybe what Europeans are doing is they live on this stuff and take it all for granted, thinking "well at least someone else took care of culture before me, so 1. I don't have to worry about it or 2. I am the legitimate son of Baudelaire and Nieztche and the world must respect me and my art" (when really the art as in the 'new french scene' is bollocks and comes off as fakely superior and pretentious)
At least in the American culture, since there's less to begin with, art is free from the past's heavy burden, and maybe artists are more enclined to create groundbreaking mouvements.
Rock n roll anyone? Pollack? Basquiat? Wharol?
Although Rock n roll would be nothing if it wasn't something used to fight against some establishment and the English are pretty good at giving the finger to decades, no, centuries of 'conformisation'? Then Dadaism was rock n roll, too.
Fuck, I don't know. I'm trying to defend Europeans and their art while I despise the French's attitude when it comes to their ridiculous nationalist pride, and I'm trying to defend American's art knowing full well the country didn't have the time to produce its own painters. And yet I admire more than anything the ability of people like Wharol to break free from any kinf od artsy influence, which Europeans artists I think find harder to do.
But then again it's seen as 'chic' for Americans to explore Europeans artists.... Interpol vs. 19th Century Romanticism anyone?
I think there's a book titled 'When America will have its own painters' or something.
Anyways that's why Wim Wenders is dope. He's German but makes movies paying hommage to American stuff. It's cool in my books.
Oh the mental masturbation.
ps. Don't even think about emailing me with a list of great American Canadian artists, i KNOW there's a shitload of them. I even prefer them to European ones most of the time. K, thanks.
"The Art Teacher" (c) Rufus Wainright
aka BEST POEM EVER
There I was in uniform Looking at the art teacher I was just a girl then; Never have I loved since then
He was not that much older than I was He had taken our class to the Metropolitan Museum He asked us what our favorite work of art was, But never could I tell it was him Oh, I wish I could tell him -- Oh, I wish I could have told him
I looked at the Rubens and Rembrandts I liked the John Singer Sargents He told me he liked Turner Never have I turned since then No, never have I turned to any other man
All this having been said, I married an executive company head All this having been done, a Turner - I own one Here I am in this uniformish, pant-suit sort of thing, Thinking of the art teacher I was just a girl then; Never have I loved since then No, never have I loved any other man
Last time I saw a Wim Wenders movie was 14th of May 2005, and it was Million Dollar Hotel. Which I considered to be one of the best movie ever made. So when I sat down to watch it -Baileys in hand- this very night, I was excited about sharing the love. The person I was watching the movie with fell asleep in front of it. It was heartbreaking, but not because of the movie.
Now I went to see the latest Wenders movie, 'Don't come knocking' tonight with Boris, A and M, and we were in for a shock. I fell in love with Gabriel Mann's character pretty hard (very idontgiveafuckrocknroll, he was).
More than that, it was great because -sadly- a great illustration of our relationship with male parental figures and their cowardice, yes can you see my heart bledding trhough the keyboard, and how women, in those precise cases, just put up with their shit and immature, despictable ways.
In a nutshell. It felt like being explainned why men, nay- my own father, for all men are not undeserving failures running away when things get too tense this I think I know, had the same attitude as Shepard's character. Which even worse, was a moving, likeable character. Just lost, but not realising the hurt and pain he left behind his absence.
So like I said in my previous entry, it was Art making life more interesting and amazing than Art. The two collide when something about the movie has the chance to find a receptive public. I for one was one receptive person tonight. It moved me in ways I didn't even want to be moved.
And as always with Wenders. The non-said. The subtleness. The music, of course. The lives. The time passing by too fast. The Rock n Roll. The randomness. The crazy people and their little crazy habits. The nonsense and the landscapes. The humanity, at the end of the day.
I have the quote that will FOREVER end any debate I might have had with you (P, oh the ferocious, passionate arguments...) , you (B), also you (Cam, not reading my blog, but discussions we had 4 years ago) and you too (Mark, you fucker, always right but not 'clever') about Art, its meaning, it's nothingness, its worthlessness, its importance:
"L'art c'est ce qui rend la vie plus intéressante que l'art"
Or
"Art is what makes life more interesting than Art", Robert Filliou.
Imagine staring at an oeuvre d'art by Cézanne, thinking the moutain he painted is incredible. Now imagine travelling the South of France and seeing this very moutain. You'd see blues and pinks and yellows that are not even there. But someone else made it happen to you. Your life is being made into something better because of someone else's eyes.
It's about fuel. What keeps your feet on some cold minimalist ground and your head in Dadaist clouds. It's not about showing what's not there. It's about showing what really is in front of you, and leave you to it for years and years to come.
OK fuck the hiatus just for this one: Today I tricked a bartender to create and name a cocktail after my name. Not kidding, Boris and Melonie can testify. If you want to drink me:
Sijeka Cocktail:
Gin Grand Marnier Raspberry liquor Strawberry liquor cream Tonic Add real fruits on top: Kiwi and Pineapple
An email a year ago, by Cam, and I'm still on hiatus.
The tough thing is that I really don't know what to tell you. I definitely felt/feel that way about politics alot of the time. The thing is that I don't know how much I believe in partisan politics atthe end of the day. But the bottom line is taht you have to care. I hate people who are too clever to care. Y'know...this postmodernbullshit that noone's right or wrong.
It's like love, lots of people are too smart to fall in love, they know there's no such thing as"soulmates" or "eternal love" and so they won't open themselves up to it. Well, who the fuck are they?
Why do they have all the answers?
The fact is, if you believe in something like people changing the world and that people want certain things (freedom, equality) then you're opening yourself up the same way someone who believes in love does.
You can't feel the way you do right now if you don't put your faith in it, and sometimes it doesn't work out. BUT, the reason you keep trying and keep believing is that, if you don't, you'll never experience the opposite of the lows: the highs, a real change, true love.
I think I need a blog sabbatical, but before leaving the blogosphere:
Today at work a girl came in and everyone could tell she was suffering. She didn't even start working, she was merely looking for someone to drive her to the hospital, or a doctor. She had a bloody eye and marks on her face, and she said her rib felt like it was half broken, she couldn't move at all without having her face distorted by pain.
When we asked her what had happened, she said she was walking back home yesterday night around 2, and passed by two guys. One of them yelled 'Hey baby you look fine, I'd like to fuck you and have my dick in your mouth'. And so on. She understandably lost it and called them assholes.
The two guys beat her up for a good 10 mns, and left her half unconscious on the floor. She called a friend who drove her home, and went to work the next morning.
A manager and I asked if she was going to press charges against X, or at least go to the police station to explain what happened.
She said she was not going to, that 'she deserved it by calling them assholes', and that it wouldn't change anything.
The manager and I lost it and spent 10 minutes explainning why she HAD to press charges, give them a description, that was about principles. Also, if she was to be attacked again by those men, or if the description was related to another incident, the guys would be fucked and not have 6 months but 2 years solid.
She said no, she just wanted to go to the hospital to have her rib checked. She wouldn't go to the police. She deserved it. She looked for it. Those were her words.
Fuck, two guys, 6ft tall, probably 100 or more kgs each, beating up senselessy a 20 years old, 5ft4, 50 kgs woman?
Fucking cowards. I'm disgusted beyond words.
When someone told the manager the girl wasn't going to work because she had to go to a doctor, and why, he didn't even comment on it, but just said he was pissed off because he didn't have anybody to replace her for her late afternoon shift.
Yeah Raymi and I must share the same thoughts on Hockey if I believe Philogynist's post. I used to have more or less the same attitude concerning wearing sport-hockey related clothes in BC. / private joke.
Not only that, songs from Life in Slow Motion, Gray's newly-released album, receive a roar of recognition after only a few notes. So fervent are the audience that at one point Gray yells "More taxes!" just to see if they'll cheer absolutely anything he says. Gray's populism makes it easy for a certain kind of music snob to take potshots; it isn't hard to see him as ushering in the ubiquitous squawk of the likes of James Blunt. It is hard, however, to see Blunt introducing a song as "a hymn to the lack of a god", as Gray does with Ain't No Love.
"I hereby acknowledge... the work environment is one in which joking and innuendo based on female sex appeal is commonplace." — From the new-employee document Hooters waitresses have to sign. (via Nerve.com)
So today I got a pretty super cool reference letter from the think tank I was working in this summer, and I'm thinking maybe if I was showing it to ****** i'd get a promotion and become manager? Hahaha lemme think about it for a sec, no.
My marketing student friend mentionned below in another post says no because they never hire people with a strong academic background, fearing they might end up fucking over the 'franchises' of the company and create trouble, which sounds about right.
Ian: How's working at *****?
Jess : oh, shitty Jess : im gonna write an article about them Jess : and destroy them Jess : first day and i already have grounds to do so
ianmack dit : really? on what
Jess : guys insulting me and managers being all good natured about it not doing shit ianmack dit : who's insulting you? a customeer? Jess : yes Jess : and while the client is king Jess : insulting someone is reprehensible by the french Civil Code Jess : and work laws Jess : so they can go fuck themselves
ianmack dit : what did the guy say
Jess : he pointed a finger at me and said 'i dont want to order anything, but i wanna order this girl over there' (nb. he pointed at me later again saying 'I'll be waiting outside') Jess : and the managers where like 'hahaha' this is funy and didnt say shit Jess : and the client didnt even buy anything Jess : but hung around saying shit like that
ianmack dit : ha are you serious? that's brutal ianmack dit : i would've punched him in the face
So I give myself one month to infiltrate the system, talk to my law teachers and start writing stuff about it all. And quitting :)
You're really enthusiastic about the music that you like. You attempt to discover your new favourite band every week. You continually try to get your friends into the music you like, which annoys the fuck out of them, but you don't know it. At least you're not arrogant about it.
Yeah, but I am arrogant. Ps: I know a guy who's so cool he makes mixtapes as in TAPES and walks around with a TAPES walkman and one of those old school red headphones and i swear to god if the Ipod wasn't so good, I'd do the same.
