funeral coos

Oh. My. Fucking. God.

That was my reaction last night to the Arcade Fire concert. It was one of the best concerts that I've ever been to and even though, by most accounts, it was not quite as good as the show that now I *really* regret not seeing them at in October. The whole lineup was good: Final Fantasy (who can get a little gimmicky with his looping pedal and is best when playing covers) and Wolf Parade (much better live than on their EP, and their song "Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts" is now one of the top 5 most listened to on my iTunes) opened up with short but very entertaining sets.

And then the Arcade Fire. There were some technical problem they had in the middle of the set because they kept breaking their guitars, which took away some of the energy and I think they were a bit exhausted with their 6 shows in the past 6 nights. But they were just fabulous. Power Out (Neighbourhood #3) was definitely the highpoint in a show with a lot of them. It was transcendant. It took me to a musical place I've never been before. It's hard to describe but it was like a religious epiphany (this is why people believe in God, Chris). It made me excited about liking music again. And then, then, they segued into Rebellion (Lies) which is my favorite song. Oh, it was brilliant. Other high points: No cars no from their EP and worked really well live, Laika is where they first put it into a different gear, Wake Up with everybody they knew up on stage, and ending with In the Backseat which was heart breaking and a great end to the show. See chromewaves for a better description of the Wednesday night show.

So, Matt, if you're not hanging around with the famous coos of Pollock Parks (and mighty fine coos, they be), you might want to try the Glasgow University Debating Chamber on May 5th because this is a show that shouldn't be missed. Even if you're not that keen on the album. Last night, the third sold out show of three in a 1250 capacity venue, and there were still people paying over a 100 bucks for a scalped ticket. You should go just to make me jealous.

Also on May 5th. Thailand! Yay!

I've got the wolf parade EP in the artichokes account, for those able to work the technology.

The rebellion of the household appliances

I thought I'd try something a little different. I've always admired the mp3 blogs and I thought it would be nice to do something that like. I have neither the taste nor the webspace to do it properly but I think I could do this on an irregular basis.

So here's how it works. I've cleared out one of my gmail accounts "artichokes@..." opened up a message, attached a number of songs to it and saved a draft of the message. If anyone's interested, email me and I'll send you the password to the account. Simply sign in, open up the saved draft, and download. Feel free to upload some songs of your own.

The first set:
Still Life-Russian Futurists: New tune from the Ontario keyboardist

I will never see the sun-Great Lake Swimmers: There are only so many songs about the TTC, and in honour of the averted strike, here is one of the best.

Lie in the sound-Tresspassers William: Why are women singers so sexy? This one's got kind of a mazzy star sound to it. I'm such a sucker.

Goodnight moon-Shivaree: See above, except with more of a cabaret feel. She played in Toronto recently and supposedly was excellent.

No one takes your freedom-DJ earworm: Epic mash-up that's not just a gimmick but good on it's own terms.

Dusche-Farin Urlaub: In prague, my hotel didn't have a proper alarm clock and you were expected to use the alarm in the television set. So every morning, I'd wake up to the soothing sounds of MTV Germany and every morning it would be one of two songs. Either the new Toten Hosen song or this one. It's catchy and very germanic and makes no sense. I looked up the translation of the lyrics and it's about how his household appliances are trying to kill him, so he sleeps in the shower because the shower is his only friend. I hope it's symbolic.

Faking the Books-Lali Puna: I got this one from the Global Pop Conspiracy back in the day when I was listening to them. I listen to this one on repeat and try to figure out what the prominent sample in this song is saying.

We have a pulse

Two months since my last half hearted post? I really have some catching up to do, especially with the great photo laden efforts of Matt and Andrew.

So, yes. I'm still alive and hoping to remain in that condition. I've been feeling a little burnt out and overwhelmed lately. I've got another two weeks of school left and two big projects to go and I'll be extraordinarily happy when it's all over. Both projects I find very interesting but they are massive amounts of work, comparable I think to my Master's thesis after taking the increased complexity of these projects into account. If I had more time, (or if I had been more on the ball) I think that they would have been excellent--probably would have been able to parlay one into substantial amounts of funding and the other into a major journal article, but alas. Maybe in the mythical world of the future where "when I have time" resides.

But it hasn't been all multi-level models and periodontal disease. I did get away to Europe for a little while, which was an excellent break. It's too bad that Matt wasn't able to come. Maybe after he gets his passport back we can meet up somewhere else.

It's interesting seeing a city again, relatively closely to the last visit. I guess I expect places like Montreal, or even Ottawa, to be essentially the same everytime I go back, but going far away, I expect, for no good reason, massive newness. But I really enjoyed the familiarity of the place. Seeing the hostel Christy, Heidi, and I stayed in last time. The anticlimatic clock. The stunning view from the castle.

I was staying at the Hilton, the conference hotel, which while nice in the hotelyness certainly had something lacking in the charm department (especially for the price--175 euros a night discount rate--Everything at the hotel was crazy expensive. I once thought about grabbing lunch there but thought again after learning that it cost $45 dollars for the "convenience" of not leaving the hotel.) The conference itself was good. I like conferences. I wear a suit and meet lots of people and learn lots of things and drink a lot. It's exhausting, especially with the Americans who keeping obstinately scheduling things before 8am, but great fun. There were a pile of Canadians there most of us who know each other from other events and it's just a good group. We even got all invited to a reception at the Canadian embassy.

After the conference was over, I took off to Salzburg. It took a little longer to get there than it should have, because the Czechs thought it would be fun to do little detours on buses. I did get to meet Martina Navartilova because of the delay. No, not the Martina Navartilova, but probably a nicer and friendlier one. But because of all the delay, I didn't end up getting to Salzburg until fairly late in the afternoon, just enough time to find a hotel, get some food, and wander along the river. The next morning, I got up super early and made my way up to Bad Gastein, one of the popular ski resorts in the area, for a little skiing. It was snowy and cloudy which was a shame because it would have been a fantastic view from up at 10,000 feet, but the skiing was worth it. It's amazing skiing above the tree line because there's no real barriers so you can let gravity take its course. My hostel there was fabulous, maybe one of the best hostels I've ever stayed at. Friendly, beautiful and crazy well maintained and clean. I was staying in a room with a few girls from Montana and a whole bunch of american army guys on a two week leave from Iraq. It was really interesting get to meet the army guys, people that I would likely never run across in real life. I tried asking them about Iraq, but they clearly didn't want to think about it. Most of them were supposed to have finished months ago, but were being kept on. "Iraq," said one guy resignedly, "is bad shit." It's true though about Army guys and women, even out of uniform. Amazing to watch. And even the Army guys were in awe of the Marines in that respect. Navy, though, got no respect.

Anyways, I've posted a couple of pictures from Prague and Salzburg if you want to see. I've really either got to get a flash or a new camera so I can take pictures at night. Scroll over to see all the pictures.