I just came home from seeing Maximo Park live :) The $18.00 downtown Vancouver parking fee was weirdly worth more than one ticket to the show - but it was well worth it! The show was absolutely fantastic ! I'm glad Rayms let me drag him into going ;)
Maximo Park is now my new favorite band :D
I have a soft spot for electronica. I figure, being a child of the 80's and having grown up with synthesizer laden songs - I will and will always be - fond of dancey-pop, casio-programmed songs. One of my all-time favorite songs when I was a kid was New Order's Bizzare Love Triangle ( which I listened to along with Debbie Gibson's Electric Youth and that other popular song at that time - Rico Mambo). When the 80's keyboard infused music waned in its popularity, I went with the crowd and got into rock and grunge. I still had that itching for those computer programmed beats though, and was kind of happy that Apollo 440 was there with electronica infused with rock-out guitar riffs to satisfy my music craving.
Right now, I'm being spoiled crazy with all these bands and artists opting for the 80's sound, occasionally injecting electronic music with their own.
While rock bands might not be having openings for keytar-ists (yet!), I've found two great acts whose songs have crazily gotten stuck in my head for the past few days.
PlayRadioPlay!'s 'At This Particular Moment In Time' is so catchy I think you'll get it stuck in your head too. Checking out this group's bio, PlayRadioPlay! isn't actually a group, but a one-man-band - a 17-year old kid from Texas named Dan Hunter. He sounds like a girl in this song which makes me think if he was the one who sang it and if it was recorded before his voice broke. In any case, it's a song that laments over his ladylove - 2 years older, going to college and favoring big muscled guys with big trucks over him. Personally, I can't relate to the lyrics at any level - but it has a killer beat. I'm not sure about the future of this song or this artist, since he hasn't broken through mainstream music yet. I may be denying that I ever liked this song once it gets repeated airplay over Radio Disney (if it ever goes there). But yes, at this particular moment in time, 'At This Particular Moment In Time' made my heart skip a beat just listening to it.
Another song lodged in my head is Ms. John Soda's 'Hands'. The first time I heard it, I thought it was likable - I didn't rave over it instantly but it sort of grew on me. It's like the time you realize that you've fallen for a person. You don't usually know it instantly when you meet them. You go through a series of events where you get together and it feels great when you're with them. It's not love yet, but then there's an 'a-ha!' moment where something clicks and then you know deep inside that you're in love with that person. For this song, I sort of had it stuck in my head one day just humming it, and didn't even know who sang the song and what the name of the song was. I was thinking, it was just a random song that I heard somewhere and just continued humming it. I woke up and it was playing in my head again, then I knew I liked the song.
Which makes me remember...that one movie I liked. Jude Law was in it - "Music from Another Room". He had this nice line on what love was like:
"You know how when you're listening to music playing from another room? And you're singing along because it's a tune that you really love? When a door closes or a train passes so you can't hear the music anymore, but you sing along anyway... then, no matter how much time passes, when you hear the music again you're still in exact same time with it. That's what it's like."
I told this to my sister and she didn't get it. I don't know, maybe I'm just a true blue music junkie or even a sappy romantic (or maybe both) but it sure hits home for me.
I hate getting reports or reading reports of assessments for Paolo. The time I got the official report from Sunny Hill about his autism, I felt really bad since the only thing that sounded good about it was the part for 'physical description' where they describe my son as a 'handsome good looking little boy'. Other than that, was all the other stuff that I knew about that I didn't want to hear again. But lately, now that we've been doing weekly therapy, things have been going a bit better with regards those reports. This is in part, because of the people that Paolo's been working with regularly now , our behaviour consultant's team of interventionists - fresh out of university. They've set up this binder for Paolo where they record all the things that have happened in the session, nice little informal reports of Paolo's therapy.
Now, instead of seeing comments like - "Poor eye contact. Has Receptive/expressive language disorder" I'm now seeing comments on his binder that go like "Paolo is very smart and cute but cannot let him get away with this as it will not help him in school" when recounting the time when he tried to get out of doing an exercise by pretending to be asleep on the couch with his blankie over his head. Or "Super cute!" when he was able to successfully copy a flower drawn by the interventionist. It actually warms my heart that they add these comments to the report - though far from scientific, which does nothing for me to know how he's going along with improvements in his condition - it helps to think that others find my son as cute as I do, even though he occasionally kicks or headbutts people the face or in the case of one of the interventionists, gotten a chair thrown at her and a toy bounced off of her head.
Now, I kind of have this assurance that violent tendencies aside, my son has proven to be charming with his super cuteness and smartness.
I was meaning to post this before, but I haven't had time to do so. I've finally taken some pictures of stuff that Paolo's been building with his blocks:
"Baby Duck" (transforms into flying duck)
"Spot" (Paolo's rendition of Rolie Polie Olie's dog)
"Turtle" (Paolo's version of Tuck from Wonderpets - complete with the Scottish hat)
"Toopy"
Toopy is his first and favorite one and more often than not, he can't leave the house without Toopy in tow. Toopy also has a 'fight mode' (he just rearranges the 'arms') and a sitting mode. Weirdly enough, if you give him an exact replica of Toopy (the original cartoon character it was based on), he'll still play with his lego version of it. Paolo just loves to build stuff and often asks me for creative input on how to make lego versions of things he likes. I don't mind at all, however, I get stumped when he asks me to create a ball with his lego duplo blocks. I then argue on how difficult it is to create a round object with rectangular and square blocks- but he insists, and I try with some gruesome looking lego 'ball' results.
Paolo's been doing really well the past few days - he isn't as hard to handle as before and he's been dutifully using sentences when he talks as he's been instructed. The only thing now that's been really bugging us is the toilet training. He's real good at asking to go to the toilet to pee, but not to poo. Rayms is worried that he might not be toilet trained when the time comes when he starts school -- which is this September. I, on the other hand, am playing it cool. He'll get the hang of it eventually - maybe a couple of days before the start of school. He might be like me, I always love to wait till the deadline nears to finish things. And of course, when nagged to get things done, more often than not, I feel the natural urge to slow down. Might be something my son inherited, you'll never know.
But what if the time comes and he still isn't toilet trained? - my husband asks. And I say - there are other kids out there with disabilities that have wheelchairs and need nursing support to go through the day. Paolo has a disability too - a real big learning one, that's why he'll have a person there for one on one support - to help him with his trouble toileting. And then I felt it was a pretty sad answer. There it was again - the realization that 'Oh yeah. He isn't like normal kids'. We forget that sometimes. He looks oh-so-normal, but yet, how does his behaviour consultant call it? Not neurotypical (a more scientific term for mentally normal). We just hope, his natural tendencies to do autistic behavior dies down a bit, just a bit, just enough to make him seem normal enough for everybody to see - functioning without much of a hitch, in everyday, normal, ho-hum life.
I can't help but like this song - it's a kitty cat song to the tune of Velvet Underground's 'After Hours'. You know what they say - good thing + good thing = better thing. Here's the orginal Velvet Underground song and the kitty cat version 'If You Rescue Me' for your listening pleasure:
Audio: It's dedication time. What song are you sending out, and who is it dedicated to?
To all static noise lovers out there, here is the perfect song for you!
What's the cool thing about 'found' art? That it's random, quirky and original in a sense that something gets re-invented. There's those cool installations at art museums made of 'found' objects, they make interesting literature that you can bide your time reading and 'found' music also makes for excellent, top quality listening.
For the past few weeks, I've been listening two albums by an Australian band, Architecture in Helsinki, and a band composed of two sisters, CocoRosie - two groups that I've enjoyed immensely. As a sampler, here's Architecture in Helsinki's "The Owls Go" and CocoRosie's "By Your Side".
So what does my four year old music connoisseur say about this? He not as thrilled as he was listening to Postal Service songs, but he loves itwhen I do the popping sound with my mouth when we listen to Architecture in Helsinki. He's warming up to it though, since it starts with counting (four, three, two, one), one of his current obsessions. It also has a little girl singing along too which is a plus. Me, I'm just amazed how tapdancing, handclaps, fingers snapping, popping noises, breathing noises and your usual musical instruments (the trombone is the best) would create such a wonderful song. Also, who knew the line "Attic and a basement with a knife serrated, I'll protect you" would sound ever so similar to "Finding a replacement with a heart sedated, I'll forget you". The CocoRosie song, Paolo's not too thrilled about - but I like it. It's supposedly recorded in an bathroom in an apartment in France with a couple of children's toy music and electronic instruments and jangling a couple of coins.
I just love finding 'found' music :)
I love my weekends off now, since I get to spend the whole weekend with my family - which means more Paolo time! The only thing I guess, I miss from working during weekends, is my Saturday routine of taking over Khanh's desk when he leaves at 4:30. That time I was the only one in my row working the Swing shift, so, when everyone from Days leaves, I'm all alone in my row for the rest of the shift. That's when I move.
I love Khan's desk. I do. He keeps it real neat and clean. Plus, he
has this nifty CD player that you can use to play songs without putting
your headphones on - given the person beside you is a-ok with it.
Luckily for me, Brad doesn't mind the noise and can tolerate it, Avey
is too far away to get bothered by it - also she usually has her
earphones blasting away with Korean/Jap music tunes, while Kevin also
has his own supply of rap/hiphop songs to listen to. On my last day of
working on a Saturday, I brought three albums I just downloaded, the
Blow, a Coheed and Cambria album and a Danielson Famile album. Brad,
who I guess was a bit bored on a Saturday ( which was our 'Friday' of
the week) asked me if I brought any new music - since it would either
be the radio or Khanh's Beatles or Michael Jackson album. The first
thing that I thought of was my Danielson Famile one since it was the
weirdest group I've ever encountered. I let him listen to it - a weird
mix of marching band music and caterwauling. If this was any other
band, I wouldn't have tolerated it much - but the fact the they were
actually a Christian band added to the quirk factor and totally
endeared them to me - not to mention that they're also a real family
consisting of the Smith brothers and sisters lead by Bro. Daniel Smith.
They wear nurses outfits during their show to to emphasize the healing
nature of their performance. Also, Daniel, wearing a tree costume with
fruits on it symbolizing the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit, while
doing a performance, is total genius.
The best way to appreciate them is to watch this trailer of a movie of their story (yes, somebody actually made a film about them):
After watching this and listening to music, I was able to convert Brad into a fan ( and apparently his friends too - now they're looking for a copy of the elusive Danielson Famile movie). I gave him a copy of the album telling him he'll be clapping for Jesus in no time ;)
For another sampling of the genius that is Danielson and Bro. Daniel himself, here's their music video of "Did I step on your Trumpet" - a moving track that vaguely and oddly reminds me of the Oompa Loompa Song in the 70's movie "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". It's just me, but, go figure:
I'm back! It's been more than a month - a pretty hectic month at that and I've been itching to blog and now I can :) Thank God of long weekends, which luckily, I have now. Being bumped up at my job certainly has some perks - and holidays off is one. Yes, that's what's been keeping me busy for the past month a new position at work and also, family stuff too.
Paolo updates: he's improved a lot in a month :) His team of interventionists now meet twice a month instead of monthly to review their programs since he's been good at acquiring all the skills that they've been teaching him (they have to develop new programs constantly). He's gotten better at searching the net too - he now knows how to narrow down his searches to get the specific things he wants. For example, if a search for 'Patrick' does NOT give him Spongebob Squarepant's friend, he will then add the word 'Starfish' after 'Patrick' to get what he wants. I've seen it and it's amazing. Even grownups don't even know the basics of narrowing down your search! He also knows to search for videos on YouTube too, memorizing the whole web address - right after seeing me browse the site. He actually picks up on stuff I surf on the net and most recently has acquired the word 'Skins' in his library of words he knows how to spell and read. And why is that? Well, it's because it's my latest favorite thing to watch on the net.
It's something that I just found. Me with the whole websurfing thing, I find the oddest and coolest kinds of things. It started with Maximo Park. I got addicted to their song 'Apply Some Pressure' and wanted to know how they looked like or sounded like in an Interview. So I YouTubed them. I found an Interview on a UK show called Popworld, which was kind of a quirky MTVish type show. Curiosity ensued again and I searched for more Popworld videos and found quite a few with the host Simon Amstell in it. After a few videos, I became quite intrigued, especially with his Babyshambles interview, that didn't make any kind of sense at all. I go on and Wiki-ed him to find out that he's quite known for his non conventional interview style - which more often than not, leaves interviewees confused or appalled. He once made Britney spears walk out - commenting something in the lines that she may be crazy. Checking further, I found out that he's currently hosting a game show 'Never Mind the Buzzcocks'. So, I then found YouTube vids of it and enjoyed it quite immensely (I should make me a note of posting this later - this show is hilarious!). Since I loved him so much - he's my new favorite celebrity - I tried searching for other things he was involved in. This in turn resulted in watching 'Skins' - a UK TV show about teens where he co-wrote one episode. Now, I could certainly say, I'm hooked and a big fan of 'Skins'.
After viewing a few episodes available online on YouTube, I knew I had to watch the whole season of the show. I know, I know, I shouldn't be watching these teen themed shows, I'm too old for these, right? I hate to admit, I do like these kinds of shows sometimes. Blame it on my underpriviledged teenage years - no parties or proms or boyfriends, being in a very very conservative all girls Catholic school and with an immensely strict dad to boot. I never did get hooked on the OC or One Tree Hill though, but Skins has a certain draw to it. One word to put it - it's edgy. It's like, Saved By The Bell, but on dope.
Primarily, it's about a group of friends, 17 year olds, in college, and their lives growing up. Sounds pretty simple right? Having gone through the whole season these past few days, the premise is quite simple, the plot not so complicated - though, the way they tell the story and excute it is quite original. I'm not sure why they called it Skins in the first place, but judging from what I've seen, I might think it's because they show the most amount of skin than in any other teeny bopper shows. The first episode for example, gives you a voyeuristic shot of a nude woman (yes, boobs are seen) being eyed by one of the teenagers from his room's window. He's also half naked wearing only his boxer briefs (that's briefs, not shorts - so it's a bit form fitting). Also, one of the other episodes has one of the main characters completely naked and walking around in the streets. It has a hint of 'American Pie' in it, but tonnes more swearing than I've ever heard in a teen film or TV show. It kind of reminded me of my other favorite UK TV show 'Shameless' ( which according to my husband, chronicles the life of a 'white trash' family, UK version). Hearing that it was created by the same people, made me love the show more.
The main ongoing theme for the first season is boy falls in love with girl but girl has a boyfriend which incidentally is the boy's best friend - the Classic Love Triangle. Girl knows boy is in love with her but thinks of him as only a friend. She tries to hook him up with another girl that eventually falls in love with the boy but is devastated by his cluelessness of her feelings for him. Then, throw in some friends - a sex hungry, party going Muslim boy, his gay friend, their hyperactive drug experimenting friend and a fiesty clarinetist who would readily shove her clarinet up you ass if you get in her way. To spice things up, the boyfriend is a cheating, lying, manipulative, but sometimes lovable chum. In one episode, gives the gay friend a head, just for kicks. The boy in love is your typical geeky, dorky boy that occasionally enjoys wanking (which we see him do twice in the series) and has several nudie girl pictures in his room. The girl hoplessly in love with him is an obsessive-compulsive anorexic who loves food - but not to eat, but to arrange in a neat and orderly kind of way. The girl, who's the object of affection, seems to be the only one who's almost normal in the lot. She's the stereotype party-girl, who wears the most fashionable clothes and loves to get attention from the opposite sex. It's character driven, well written and is lucky enough to have a great cast who knows how to flesh the characters out the right way. Weirdly enough I can relate to two of the main characters, who uncannily resembles me and my husband more ways than one.
In the next bit, I will indulge in re-telling the story of Skins - focusing on my two fave characters Sid and Cassie. Yeah, do forgive me, I have to get this out of my system ;)
So Sid, is the loyal best friend of Tony (played by the boy in 'About a Boy', Nicholas Hoult) - a very cool good-looking guy who's girlfriend is Michelle - Sid's lifelong crush. He's geeky-dorky and nice, which makes him the typical non-boyfriend but bestfriend type guy for girls. He abhors this as he knows Michelle sees him as such and she also tells him so (at this point my husband says 'hey that's me!'). He's also a virgin too at 17. So, Tony, the cool friend that he is, sets him up to get laid at a party with the help of Michelle who hooks him up with her friend Cassie, who just got out of the clinic for an eating disorder problem. Cassie, looks extremely kooky and the first time she meets Sid, it seems that she'd taken a few pills of ecstacy. She hugs both Sid and Tony (even kissing Tony) and looks a bit out of it for the most part of the evening . Here's a real nice clip from YouTube, something that Cassie says while on the trampoline is something that I say to my husband on a regular basis. 'Hey, it's us!' he says, it's an inside joke and I find it hilarious:
Cassie doesn't OD, but she's still anorexic and doesn't eat. The fact the Sid notices it, kind of makes her fall for him. There's a real great scene here where she is on the second floor looking down at people on the lower floor. She sees Sid passing by and wants to convince herself that he likes her, asking for a sign that he does by saying 'Look up if you like me. Look up if you like me'. (How many times have I done that in my life? There's the, if he wears red today, he likes me, if I hear my favorite song on the radio, he likes me, heads he likes me tails he doesn't, he loves me, he loves me not...) He doesn't look up wherein she reacts by saying 'Oh bugger' and retreats to her class:
She was actually hallucinating that Sid was sending messages for her to 'eat' which prompts her to go back to the clinic. She still he likes him and feels crushed that he's head over heels for Michelle and can't even consider going for someone else who's there and actually likes him back. She's not discreet about showing him he likes her, but Sid, being thick as he is, doesn't get the message. She suggests going out on a date - they set one up, but he gets grounded that same day to force him to do his history homework. When she gets the news, the reacts cherrily saying 'Oh, I didn't eat for three days so... I could be lovely' but suggests stopping by later. Sid sneaks out, urged by Tony, to accompany Michelle to his choir concert which turns out to be a disastrous evening as Michelle catches Tony cheating on her. Tony has actually planned it and suggest that Sid comfort Michelle and that it's 'his chance'. When Sid catches with Michelle, they encounter a gang of 'chav' girls that beat them up - Michelle getting away with only a punch in the eye while Sid a much much worse beating and gets peed on by homeless man while he cringes near the gutter. Sid then comes home, bloodied, bruised and reeking of piss seeing Cassie waiting for him:
The next day, Tony urges Sid to take Michelle out on a date - offering her as a 'gift' for Sid. He tells Tony that it's all fucked up, but gives in by giving Michelle a call which Cassie overhears - making her feel more crushed as she was the night before. As Sid and Michelle go on their 'date' Cassie loads up the squirt gun she stole from Sid's room with Vodka, takes in a whole bag of pills and chases them down using her Vodka squirt gun. It's a nice an artsy scene suicide scene with Cassie swaying to Portishead as she takes in the effect of the drugs. Tony shows up where Michelle and Sid are and Michelle takes Tony back in. Sid realizes this as another one of Tony's manipulative schemes and leaves, only to call Cassie and hear the news of her suicide attempt.
Tony goofs up again on his relationship with Michelle when he attempts to give their gay friend Maxxie a sexual favor right in front of a sleeping Michelle when they go out on their field trip to Russia. She wakes up seeing this, but feigns sleep, only to be hurt when Tony thinks nothing of it and doesn't apologize after the fact. Too devastated, she goes to Sid offering him a chance to get in bed with her. Surprisingly, Sid was unable to perform - admitting to Michelle that he thinks he may be fancying another person and considers Michelle as only his friend now. So, they head up to the clinic where Cassie is staying with Michelle convincing Sid 'Just because you made someone try to kill herself doesn’t mean she won’t be glad to see you.' :
They don't see each other a few days after, but after Tony comes to Sid asking for a favor to find his missing sister - Sid manages to discover Cassie following them randomly as they go around town. He calls her, asking her to meet up with him:
Cassie is peeved, feeling unimportant as Sid chooses Tony and Michelle over her, so she writes a letter to Sid to let him know her feelings. Sid in turn realizes that he may be in love with Cassie ( I just love how he writes his letter ;) ):
He goes off to the clinic in a hurry, wearing mismatched clothing - intent on letting Cassie know of his feelings. Mistaking him as an escaped patient, they lock him in a padded room for the rest of the day. Tony comes to the rescue and bails Sid out, carrying with him Cassie's letter, that she left on Sid's bed earlier that day. He leaves to look for Cassie. Cassie, out and about in town is seen by Tony. She tells him to tell Sid she's going away to Scotland. He then gives her a going away gift - Sid's unfinished letter.
Here's the cool part about this - may be cheesy for others, but I liked it :) Tony gets run over by a van just before he admits to Michelle on the phone that he truly loves her and Sid breaks out into a song after he reads Cassie's letter. (An unconscious Tony also sings along too):
Ain't it a great show? So there, I got it out, I'm never going to blog about this again like a giddy teenager telling a story about her latest crush. If you're like me, I think you'll enjoy this show immensely - even if it is about teens. It's fresh and original, it's got sex, drugs and lots of cool music too. That Pete Doherty song when Sid and Cassie kiss - really, really great. I don't care if Pete Doherty 's a crackhead, he really knows how to make good songs. And most of all, it's more real then any other show I've seen - even in the end when they break into song. Life IS a sing-along musical...or maybe just for me.
I know this is posting's a media overload, but just to top it off, here's Pete Doherty's 'For Lovers'. Enjoy!
This is one of my favorites from the Sundays, it didn't actually start out as a favorite the first time I heard it, but as songs go, some grow on you and some take on a new light with a new memory attached to it. Mine would be being here in Canada, lonely, music hungry, and watching the Food Network.
My husband would always tune in to the Food Network. I guess he likes food that much... and also watching Nigella Lawson and Giada DeLaurentis. As I watch with him, I in turn, began to take a liking to watching Jamie Oliver shows. He's cute, I'd say sometimes, I figure my husband's not the only one with celebrity chef crushes.
Usually when I say this to Rayms, he feigns jealousy and often shoots back with 'Why won't you marry him then?'. I answer back that I'm already married, and he goes into this spiel of hypothetical questions, starting with 'If you weren't married...'. He does this to me, almost always, when I mention Keanu Reeves or be amused by any guy on TV. I think he's mildly curious about knowing which guys I get attracted to, and if I'd actually go out with them if I wasn't married. The answer of course is 'Yes', who wouldnt? . Hearing my response, he'd either bash the guy by insinuating that he's gay, or make fun of him by imitating him - which I actually love, because he's really good at it. With Keanu, all he does is a 'Whoa' and it's the perfect Keanu impression. With Jamie, he does an English accent, pretends he's cooking, and smacks his fingers with his lips after throwing an imaginery ingredient into the frying pan. It's quite a sight to watch and never fails to crack me up with laughter.
Back to the song. I heard it again, the first time in oh so many years, watching one of Jamie's shows. I'm not sure which, but it was played at the end of the program, when his family and friends were all eating the dinner he cooked, on a boat, at sea. My husband asked me to download a copy of it and I did. Now it's one of my favorites.
I guess, the song came to me at a time that I wasn't listening to any new tunes and I was stuck with what I knew was good, without any good radio station or a music savvy friend to recommend anything to me. Its draw was rediscovering an old song that I didn't really take time to notice before - until my favorite chef played it on his program.
Daisies began to grow, the grass was greener, and everything seemed
fresh. I found myself becoming lost in Harriet Wheeler's airy voice :
it's you I need in the summertime as I turn my white skin red
Perfect! With the wintry weather, all I need is this song to make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Kudos to Jamie Oliver for picking such great songs in his shows. Of course, what would you expect from someone who plays Close to Me by the Cure to his wife everyday? Didn't he also play drums for a band as well? Now if I wasn't married...well, Rayms said I could have Jamie Oliver any day, granted he could get Jamie's hot wife Jools.
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