This ain't the planet of sound

I have to give another plug for Kent. I've been listening to them almost nonstop since I found out about them last week. But since this week also marks the full return of my Kazaa-power, I've been splitting my music listening time with a few other bands.

Travis have a new album 12 memories coming out soon. I have to report that it's what you would expect from them. Which is both a good thing and a bad thing. Their sound and melodies are as good as ever. Re-offender and quicksand are both highlights in that respect. However, I find their welcome wearing a bit. Especially on gimmicky songs such as Peace the Fuck out, which I liked, but grew tired of quickly.

On the other hand, Outkast's new album(s) appear to have moments of brilliance. I hear that the full two album set is a bit of a mixed bag, but what I've heard so far is kick-ass: Hey ya, ghettomusick, and the way you move stand out as superb so far.


Another couple of finds have been Beulah and Bright Eyes. The latter I should have heard of eariler, the former is the better band. I found out today reading NOW that Beulah is coming in the next month to Toronto, adding more marks to what is becoming a crowded concert season. Crowded? Yes, after the minor drought at the end of the summer, good bands are coming in by the bushload. This week, I'm seeing Polyphonic Spree, and hopefully, the Stars. Other worthy shows in the next month include Metric, Broadcast, Yo La Tengo, Calexico, Ron Sexsmith, The Thrills, Death Cab for Cutie, Manitoba, Le Tigre, and, of course, Travis. Any suggestions for what I should see? Ah, choice is a terrible thing.

Hot enough for you

Looks like the GPC guy checked his technorati links and found Matt again. The little internet grows smaller still. Of course, I need to apologize for my typo, because as everyone knows, it's not enough just to be saucy--you've got to be hot too.

from looking into the sun
Take care, rogers.com. I will miss your ways. But all three (3) of my readers should tranfer their links to www.chaiton.blogspot.com in light of the pending disappearrance of this website.

Stay all day/if you want to
Matt's right...I do have mixed feelings about the impending re-union of the Pixies. Most notably, I'm concerned about their new album. There's a strong case to be made that the Pixies have never made a bad album. Trompe le Monde may be weaker than the others, but it still has some classics and it may be the album to which I have the most emotionally invested. My favourite moment visiting Paris was sitting in a park on the Champs Elysee with a view of the Eiffel Tower listening to "Alec Eiffel." So a new album could be a real downer. Even if it's up to the quality of their earlier efforts, I have to say that my musical taste may have mellowed somewhat in the intervening years, so it may not have the same effect. However, I'll go to and love the concert anyways, despite them being old and fat. I know that the crowd will be full of people like me, people who loved the Pixies, and that love will overcome all. Not to be cheesy or anything.

I had a good weekend. My parents and my second cousin from Sweden were all in town. I had my housewarming party, leaving my fridge full of beery goodness. I was glad that Christy dropped by, I hadn't seen her in far too long. And another surprise guest, Sierra, also dropped by. The party was dominated by Rachelle's friends, who were busy networking and exchanging business cards and inviting each other to their art gallery openings, but from my perspective they made for some very interesting background. I had a long talk with a bald guy with the biggest beard I'd ever seen who just had a long piece published in McSweeny's. Definitely a different crowd than I'm used to.

I also went to my first drive-in. At least I believe it was my first, I have vague memories of another, but I can't quite pin it down. It's not a bad way to see a movie at all. Good surround sound, you can talk out loud when you feel like it, bring the munchies that you want--all the advantages of a good home theatre system, but it feels more like "going-out" than renting a movie.

My Swedish second cousin recommended the band "Kent" to me. After downloading some songs this weekend, I would heartily recommend them. There's nothing quite like attempting to sing along to Swedish.

Oh my golly
In honour of the upcoming Pixies tour, I will now be titling my posts appropriately for the next while.

As you may have noticed, my attempts to move servers were thwarted. I have failed for now. I have until September 24th when the little Rogers guy finally gets his ass over to my grandmothers house.

And Matt...you may want to check out the House of Sauce Blog. Not only is it a decent site, but it seems as if they are searching for you (see September 4th). The guy running it has something to do with GPC, but is currently living in Scotland. He notes that you were both at the Teenage Fan Club concert. (btw, remember the Radiohead/Teenage Fan Club at the Conference Centre in Ottawa...both bands in front of barely more than a thousand people...that was truly a concert for the ages. ) Anyways, the GPC guy says "Hey."

It is a small world. (In case, the GPC guy is wondering: we know the GPC because of Christy who knows Kevin S. who presumably knows you. A mere four degrees of separation. )

Nowhere land

I can't get the U of T server to work. So maybe I'll just stick to blogger. www.chaiton.blogspot.com. And so it returns to the beginning.

Am I in Toronto?

On the Road Again

I'm moving again. Moving webservers I mean. This time it's because I will no longer have the rogers account, which is currently responsible for the awkward URL here. I'm changing over to my Utoronto account, which should be good for at least a year. Damn it. Anyways, you can now find this here...http://individual.utoronto.ca/mchaiton

Oh. My. God.
Just look. Just go and look.

Speaking of breathless. Matt's post on running his half marathon made me all nostalgic. I've been using the excuse of a moderately bum heel to not run for a while, but he's got me all excited again. When I was in South Africa, I ran two half marathons and thoroughly enjoyed both of them. The first, I was totally unprepared for--I had never run further than 12 km at that time and my previous 10k had been miserable [hint: never have a full pizza dinner an hour before attempting a serious run]. It was a mixture of two courses that I had run previously, and included the exact route of my very first 10k. I decided that my goal was to finish under two hours and five minutes and I was to take it very slowly. I remember hitting the 10k mark of this race feeling wonderful, until I asked someone for the time (I don't own a watch) and realized that it had taken me well over an hour to get to that point with more than halfway to go. The next section was a bit of a struggle and the massive hill at 16km nearly made me cry(I know how it feels, Matt). However, I was able to keep going and finished at 2 hours even. That night, my fellow Canadian in SA and I went to this superb concert at the soccer stadium in Soweto (Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Mandoza, Brenda Fassie, etc) where the only problem was that there were about 200 stairs separating me from the beer concession.

The second run, was if anything, even better. With a half already under my belt, I didn't have the same nauseous feeling at the beginning. I had made the trip into Cape Town, specifically to run this race, the Two Oceans Marathon, billed as the most beautiful race in the world. My aunt was running the full marathon (56 km) which is the real gem that goes from the Indian Ocean across the Cape to the Atlantic. I still ran the first 10k far too slow (about an hour again) but I was able to do the final, mostly uphill 11.1 k in 54 minutes, which is a pretty spiffy time for a turtle like me. That .1 km is important. 100 metres is never longer when you've thought you've just finished. Luckily, the masses of cheering people (waiting mostly for the top 56 km runners who were just behind me) were there to get me to the finish.

One day, I'll do it again...

Blinding speed
Congratulations to Matt, who finished his first half-marathon in 1:54.16 [UPDATE: 1:51](see http://www.run.glasgow.gov.uk/gsrhome/gsrresults/half_marathon_2.pdf). And demolishing by personal best by two (2) seconds [UPDATE: more than 3 minutes. jesus] (see http://www.twooceansmarathon.org.za/ [year 2002]). It must feel good. Did those shoes hold up?

"sex and violence"
I just got back from the last movie since, well, crash that was so full of pretentious sex and violence. Yes, it was definately a Toronto Film Festival experience. Complete with booing.

It was the North American premiere of Twentynine Palms and for the first hour, it was tolerable. A little slow maybe as we followed two people through a drive in the desert, but with some breathtaking images--particularly a stop at a wind farm and a graphic sexual romp on top of a rocky cliff. Then it deterioates into ridiculousness. First, they decide to accentuate the "animalness" of the guy by having him have the world's loudest orgasm. I mean, as Christy and Matt would note, my idea of male orgasm isn't particularly noisy, but this guy would outgrunt a bull seal. I think it was meant to be a serious moment, but the theatre erupted in laughter. From that point, the rest of the movie is largely incoherent. The most sensible scenes are those of dramatic close-ups of the leads looking aimlessly and pointlessly off into the distance. There was some swimming, an encounter with a three-legged dog, and some running along the road. Finally, the pair is brutally attacked by three guys in an f-150 truck and the man raped, which causes him later to cut his hair and stab the woman about a hundred times. It was unbelievably graphic and totally ridiculous at the same time.

The director was there to answer questions afterward, and he looked suitably chastened by all the booing. He did inform us though that he usually uses non-actors in his movie, but since he was in Los Angeles, regular people *were* actors. Fortunately, he said, the leads were bad actors so it was okay.

Unbelievable. Hopefully, the other TIFF movies will be better.

Run, Matthew, Run
So how did it go Matt? And remember to give us your bib number so we can see your photo here.

Lost in the darkness
The new year is upon us, and my first resolution is to be more consistent with
these updates. well, maybe not my first resolution, but nevertheless an
important one. Since I last wrote, I've been to Ottawa to see my little sister
get married. I'm not a big fan of marriage as an institution, but damn it is a
good excuse for a party. I must sincerely apologize first thought to Andrew.
We tried to connect on the saturday night, but due to my poor planning and the
combined inability to make a decision of 20 of my cousins (Is there a gene for
indecisiveness?) we didn't manage to hook up. Which totally sucks. I'll make it
up to you sometime Drew. Other than that, it was great to see all of my family,
even my South African ones managed to make the trip.
I think the funniest moment though was at about 2:30 am after the wedding. 15
open-bar-level-drunk cousins were down on all fours at a the corner of Elgin and
Maclaren searching for a diamond earring with a funny little man with a backpack
who wanted to sell us a 12-pack of beer for $40 bucks. It was all very
civilized.

Other notes:
-I got tickets to the film festival here, with a combination of me and Dolly
standing in line for a total of 4 and a half hours. We're seeing Good bye
Dragon Inn, Twentynine palms and Madness and Genius. All of which, I'm sure are
soon to become instant classics.

-If anyone is in town, I officially invite them to my housewarming party. See
the cool flyer!

-Big props to Matt for his attempt at a half-marathon. My advice: no problem, it's easier than you think, and more fun. In some ways, I prefer it to a 10K. But don't plan on doing anything that involved climbing up and down stairs afterwards (I learned this the hard way). Also, don't drink too much water. You only need to drink 125 ml every 15 minutes--that means wait at least 3 km before drinking. I'll seriously impressed if you break 1:40. Go Matt!

-This is probably my last week at this url. I'm getting rid of my rogers
account and so need to move all this somewhere else. Possibly my u of t account.
Stay tuned!

-My roomate interviewed Rufus Wainwright yesterday. Damn.