29/12/02(1000pm)- not much happened yesterday. went to work in the morning. went suit shopping in the afternoon. bought a grey double breasted suit, have to get it altered. 70$. anyways. ill hold off on the raelians, maybe ill work on that entry in the airport tomorrow :-p went to see rane last night. more on that in a bit. today slept late. went to the nelsons w/mom and dad, went to see aunt fran with mom and dad and then down to new haven for pepes. mmm. then back. thats been about it. coming down to the wire on vacation. leaving 550pm on tuesday. w00t w00t. so tomorrow is work, then i think party at andrews, and eventually the money conversation with the rents. ive been rethinking law school again and i think if i take this lsat course and do well that i could stick it out. so now my first choice would be u of t if i got in. but we'll see. they're one of the best JD programs in canada, they even have one thats a JD/MA polisci w/international relations focus. which would be my backup if journalism/music failed. the princeton review book says that a lot of people coming out of there take the bar in ma, ca, and ny. so we'll see. i still gotta graduate and take my lsat. anyways, onto the rane...
At War, Cat Stevens, From the Vine, Broca's Aphasia, Gemini (these songs comprised the acoustic portion of the evening, with a string quartet, dan on upright bass, trav on small drumkit, bowman + alan acoustic, kurt on conga, marimba, shakers, etc). this was followed by a quick change of the stage, probably not long enough to be a setbreak...then:
Whisperings, Center > Sleep > Long Road solos (guitar and marimba) > Center, Forwards Onwards > New England Song > Goomba, For Them, Mirage, Blindness > Whisperings (outro)
E: Diggin in the dirt (peter gabriel cover, first time played), 4>5
i have to say that every now and then, rane does something extremely memorable that you never forget that show. i think we all say 7.27 iron horse was one of them, and tonights was probably up in the top three. and i think it was because of the string quartet.
personally, i was hoping for more improv from them, but given rehearsing time constraints, i forgive :) . not even through 3 bars in the start of at war, i turned to brianlee and said that this was gonna be a great show. it was. the girls in the quartet played real well and it was a nice acompaniment, especially on gemini. surprisingly, with all the acoustic at once, there wasnt much feedback (man im getting technical- good job brendan). the electric set was really good too. loved the center>sos, nice transitioning. i even forgot about rane's changing it up because i havent seen them stop and pick up songs at the end of the set like they did with whisperings. it was my first time seeing the whole song in entirety and it was really good. surprised gauge wasnt done but the peter gabriel cover was really happening. hopefully they'll do it a few more times and then sorta "retire" it, like everybody wants to rule the world.
the crowd on this show was amazing. extremely large, a bunch of families. unlike the last cheney show, they took out the chairs this time and just about packed it. thats what, about 1000+ people? a lot of high schoolers probably because of the string quartet. and they were all really into it and you could see a lot of energy especially out of alan and dan.
it was my first show in four months and my last show in six months and it was well more than a way to go out. if it was my one show in 10 months, im glad that this was the one. heres to whatever tides brings in '03.
28/12/02(100am)- i remember now one thing i was gonna talk about... those raelians. you may recall my having written about them back in october or november and their quest to crossburn and whatnot. or atleast i think i wrote about it. anywhos. they're back again, and cloning. and if i didnt write about it (which i swear i did), maybe i should cause its kinda nutty. but i thought i wrote about it?
27/12/02(1130pm)-im never gonna make it out of january alive. no way. ive got way much on my plate. ok backtracking. christmas was sleeping, a crappy snowstorm which wasnt even qualifiable as a snowstorm. although we've probably got more (a whole 3 inches) of snow still sitting on the ground than up in montreal. anywho, my dad and i went to see the two towers while my mom watched fellowship of the ring. not bad, but the battle sequence was a little too long. anyways, nothing really of interest for dinner either. then yesterday was a full day of work and then tired, then had the law/journalism school and nye conversations with my parents so i didnt get to go to jons. then today was a full day of work (been going nonstop all day). then went to friendlys tonight with a bunch of people, thats about it. rane tomorrow. w00t w00t. registered for the spring chicoutimi course (may 11-may 31). im really psyched about that. 3 weeks, no english contact than maybe some phone conversations home? and then i just registered for the princeton review LSAT course. thats suicide. all of january, MW 6-9pm and sat 930am-130pm. yikes. im gonna be a mess. oh well, thats university life i guess. i had something else to say. i forgot. leaving for montreal tuesday at 550pm. new years eve in montreal. publix maybe? angels? who knows. i had way more to say, i was way more hyper in typing before but i got sidetracked on everything and feel like no more typing for now.
24/12/02(1130pm)-i love christmas. i say that facetiously. why? because 2/3 of the population doesnt celebrate the holiday, but people around here just assume that you celebrate the holiday. again, when you assume, you make an ass out of you and me. i know, its being friendly, all that but give me a break. better yet, why the hell is the radio playing adam sandler's hanukkah song when hanukkah's been over for 3 weeks? why would you do that? are you ignorant or ignorant? and why is it assumed that i like christmas music. quite frankly, the music doesnt do a thing for me so why do i have to listen to it. the "holiday" season has lost its meaning these days. theres no holiday spirit other than capitalism. o/` o capitalism, my home and native dollar, true money's love, for the regular old blue-collared.... o/` (you know who thats for ;-) ). the people in cvs today were kinda grumpy and so were the customers. how is it that people countdown 364 shopping days til christmas and then dont start until 363 days later? does it take 12 months to find a gift? i dunno, i will forever never get this holiday. i will forever never understand why its made a mockery out of my holiday. and i think ill just always be cynical about it as a result.
anyways, i went to the bank today, worked all day, got a date with jessica for thursday, came home, went to buy a panasonic dvd player with my dad, watched lotr with him tonight, and thats it. i dont think i have anything else to say. i miss watching my habs hockey. and im ultimately bored. nothing doing tomorrow. maybe we're going to see lotr II, then who knows, then thursday is work and date with jessica, then friday is work and ? then saturday is rane, then sunday is pepes. i gotta call zoya about this weekends events. i need to be occupied :-/
23/12/02(1030pm)-i am soooooo bored. like im not kidding. yesterday, i didnt do much during the day- just napped on and off. then went over to jons apartment in the evening. so me and him and scott had our usual farleyfest. good stuff. then we went to dennys around 230am and saw christina from the bank last year. went home, crashed around 5am. woke up around 930, drove scott back to his house and continued into hartford for my docs appt. came home, ate lunch, napped, went back out to hartford for another docs appt and then stopped by angelas on the way home. we went to return a video and then go to marshalls for some glasses for her to paint for presents, then came back, lounged, watched tube, ate, went to mr. perrys to drop off his christmas chocolate, that was about it i think. so now im sitting on my ass bored again. although ive been in an extremely cynical mood today. ive been hearing the most vapid conversations out of people as of late and its starting to irritate me. like, reallly irritate me. and primarily im talking about total strangers, in docs offices, in stores, etc... ive come to the conclusion that people are morons. utter morons. and it all starts with iraq and north korea. rigoddamndiculous. i just got some good rane news. it doesnt alleviate my boredom, but im tired of writing here right now. i miss jessi.
22/12/02(910am)-well right now im sitting at home bored. elise just left for international convention in florida for the week, so its gonna be me and the rents til i leave. but meanwhile my mom is still out dropping her off and dad just left for the pet store. i want to do brunch with someone- anyone- but i dont want to specifically wake people up, so im hoping someone hops online and sees my away message.
ok, so yesterday went to doctor deluca's and my eyes are fine as always. got my glasses fixed up again and they're titanium coloured instead of copper like my stolen pair. had a weird dream...the trib published an article saying that mcgill was banning my napalm song because it was too graphic and echoed a prof's lecture too closely (whatever that meant). weird eh?
so also yesterday i went with andrew to see bowling for columbine for my third time. that movie is great. everyone should be required to watch it because it really emphasizes american xenophobia. heres a case in point out of todays news. george bush gets his smallpox vaccine. because naturally we can expect a war in iraq to use smallpox. and yes, its a precautionary measure, but now health care people should be getting them in case of outbreaks here... i mean what the hell, now there might be a panic for a disease thats been rid for some time now. but we never know what the evildoers might be up do. and then, we tell people that theres a possibility of getting the active disease from the vaccine- and that you may die from it. so great, you either may get smallpox, or you may get smallpox? why bother. why even bother. anyways, im not doing anything else today other than possibly contracting smallpox, so if you're around, feel free to give a call or leave a message. ive got a car at my disposal and im bored.
20/12/02(1130pm)- "Billboard's critics have chosen Coldplay's sophomore Capitol album "A Rush of Blood to the Head" as No. 1 in their survey of 2002 albums. The honor comes from our annual critics' choice round-up, where the staffs of Billboard magazine and Billboard.com, and the freelance writers who contribute to each, are invited to submit a list of their top-10 favorite albums, singles, or musical events of the year." For more, visit the full story on billboard.com.
(1030pm)-ok, i hate updating on this desktop, but eventually im gonna have to. or maybe ill post wednesdays entry at a later date about my meeting the montreal canadians, my not wanting to be back in the states, yada yada yada...but in the meantime im back at sbm. its going well. oh, and i got coldplay tix- 2 tix for feb 25 in montreal, row L. and hopefully i can get a get an interview set up with the guys through the trib office. then if im not in montreal, ill sell those tix, cause i also got 2 tix for feb 27 at the oakdale. and if i go to oakdale, ill set up an interview here maybe and then ill sell the montreal tix. the bank is going well, the girls all missed me, which was really nice and fun to come back and work with them like i never left. same jokes and everything. hmmm... ok so canadian history exam went okay. like i said, its up on the net. www.smalrus.com/Canada.doc if anyone cares. um, then chilled out, went to marche, did the belgian beer experience and came home. um... nothing else doing here at home other than dad got a new 2000 maxima, green. um, got some new clothes that were to be brought up when my parents came. um, yeah bank is okay, havent seen anyone from here except sarrah candee who came into the bank today. thats about it i think? tomorrow am is eye drs. appt and then maybe movie, then ??? its 3 days back and im already bored. im working and im bored. i like the montreal scenery. and the girls. :-p
19/12/02(100am)-i wrote a post in the airport on my laptop. ill put it up tomorrow.
18/12/02(1230pm)-exams went okay, more on that later. for now, im powering down from montreal :( more later...
16/12/02(1045pm)-ive got a lot to say today for some reason. ok, was watching connie chung on cnn briefly. dont ask why because your brain will get an anyeurism. they were showing a clip of sean penn in iraq. my question is why. not why is he in iraq, but why does the american public give a fuck? they then were talking to some lady who is suing walmart for getting her falsely imprisoned for taking pictures of her daughter innocently swimming naked. then, they were interviewing the person of the day- this fairly good looking girl in dayton, oh, who tackled some trespasser. this was at 8pm, during primetime. and im thinking to myself, "spencer, its time to sharpen a pencil and jam it in my ear because nothing can get more ridiculous than this." well that or maybe trent lott addressing the nation on BET. cnn has no news to report anymore. the war on iraq hasnt changed. trent lott hasnt changed. the economy hasnt changed. britney spears can still make big news. 2004 election is 2 years off... i dunno. its just getting uninteresting and the media only tries to make it more than it is. tomorrow on aaron brown presents: germany- the next country in the "friend or foe" series! what the FUCK! what the FUCK! first off, i bet that statistically speaking, 33% of americans cannot find germany on a map. secondly, is that how america perceives relations with other countries? you're a friend or a foe? you're either agreeing with us or not, no middle ground? and if so, what does that tell us about american sociological thinking? sometimes it scares me, just how much america actually distances what it was founded on and what it does. actions dont equal words. i dont dispute that canada has problems. every country does. but canada is not the global hegemon. and what scares me is exactly what i saw on some tv program- america has become the roman empire of our time. eventually the roman empire fell. what scares me most is that i watch cnn and most americans go about it not even caring. that tucker whatever on crossfire? he scares me shitless. him and his little bowtie? and so they go on and on, their pedantic dribble about how much it sucks that teenagers in nebraska are stuck playing basketball afterschool, how it sucks for the box office that leonardo dicaprio is going to be splitting revenues among two different movies next week, how allan iverson got arrested for another drug charge and another 400 lb person is suing mcdonalds for making them obese. land of the free, home of complacency. remember what i said about the status quo? i hate the status quo, i just go along with it.
(630pm)-exam didnt go that badly. none of those stupid id questions. just 3 essays out of 5:
a) The Arab world stands out as having eight ruling monarchies, more than any other region in the world. Choose any two of these monarchies, and identify what factors have contributed to their longevity and stability in each case. What do you think the future holds for each and why
b) Because of your vast knowledge of Arab politics, you have been asked to write a policy paper outlining the possible ramifications of a US-led war in Iraq for domestic politics in the Arab world. In your paper, highlight what sorts of effects you think a war might have in the region, what regimes would be most affected, how and why. Be sure to focus your paper on domestic issues (political stability, public attitudes, regime responses, etc) rather than foreign policy.
c) Discuss the rise of Islamist politics in the Arab world. What factors have contributed to the growth of Islamist groups? Illustrate your essay with examples drawn from at least four countries.
d) "Some parts of the Arab world have seen significant political liberalization since the 19ie.90s. In general, however, this ssems to have been intended as an alternative to democratization, not as a prelude to it." Discuss.
e) Compare and contrast the Ba'thist regimes in Syria and Iraq. What are the main similarities? What are the main differences? What factors explain these?
Answer one:
a) Of what country is Sheikh Hamad ibn Aissa Al-Khalifa the ruler? What significant political development took place in that country this year?
b) What does Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah have to say about the establishment of an Islamic state in Lebanon?
basically for the first part, i did the first 3 questions. for the first essay, i wrote about jordan and saudi arabia. the hashemite kingdom vs. the sudari seven monarchy. liberalization vs. rentierism. for the second question, i dealt with iraq vs. kuwait, iraq vs. iran, saudi arabia vs. us, jordan as being pragmatic, the palestinian support being bolstered by islamic radicalists- hamas growing in strength, and i forget what else. then for the last one, i did islamist politics in egypt, lebanon, palestine, and algeria. so now its just left to do my canadian history take home and im done. blah, i just dont want to do it :-/
(1250am)-blah blah, well tomorrow is the arab politics exam. im probably gonna go to sleep in the next hour or so so i can get a good rest to take this thing. really not looking forward to it though. i think i know enough, from mobilization of militant groups in algeria to democratisation in saudi arabia, but its just one of those things where id rather not have to sit through three hours of writing, and people write books upon books of material and i barely finish a book. i dunno, i guess i cant write fast enough. im actually fairly confident in the material, its just the part of getting it down on paper. i hate timed things- essay writing has always been easier for me. ive been better with the edited word than the timed word. then tomorrow afternoon im gonna do my canadian history take-home exam. thats a good one- fairly easy and its take-home, so ive got the advantage of the edited word thing. i just wish i didnt have to get up at 9am to hand it in and then turn around. but then im done. and i get to go home. which- yay- i get to work my vacation away. in some respects its good because i can make a few bucks (which i need after this semester), but in others it doesnt give me any relax time. but then again, its only during the day, its only for 2 weeks...and elise is gonna be at convention all week, so itll just be me and my parents, so... basically otherwise id be sitting at home bored all day. maybe its a good idea. besides, then ill only be bored during the evenings. i havent even left montreal and i already miss it. note to self: in boredom ive already made my packing list, so im putting it here so i dont forget my scrap piece of paper. bring: cell, camera, cds, laptop (blank cds), 10 tshirts, 3 pants, 9 underwear, 4 ties (for work), belt, razor, deodorant, books (women,pi,clash), cds, forget not my passport (like some people in the apartment tend to do), keys. part of me wants to bring my guitar home, but i dunno if i should :-/ i mean i can play the piano at home and ive gotten back into that here, so ive gotten reskilled. um... anyone think of anything else, leave it a comment.
tuesday gotta do laundry, bring back discman, get camelo cd from medvin...i need a haircut :( no mathilde this month :( no habs games at home :( we're gonna do lunch tues afternoon after exams :) i had something else to say but i forgot? should vacuum my room :( maybe shave my beard? i dunno what else ive gotta say. back to arab politics.
15/12/02(210am)-well, congratulations to elise for getting her license. shes apparently gonna pick me up at the airport wednesday evening, but that thought really scares me. its not her driving so much that scares me, its her picking me up from the airport that scares me. um, went swimming today. did about 20 laps, lauren showed up at the pool (was supposed to meet her at the other one, but its closed). so worked on all my strokes and that was about it. went to dinner with her for sushi. figured it was a first time for something today. so we split tuna sushi and each got a bento box. first off, im not a seafood person. and while i know sushi is seafood, i was told that you wouldnt know the difference. well the ginger salad was okay, the miso soup was okay, the tempura was okay, the rice was okay, the beef teriyaki was okay, but i had trouble with the sushi and the maki. i think it was more so the concept of eating the fish and the texture in particular. i mean aesthetically, it is really pleasing. and it was an experience, but although i eat a lot, im not an adventuresome person when it comes to food, and although i finished all my meal, i was having trouble not conceptualising what i was eating and then eating it. but...i did the experience, even if it was the worst dinner date lauren ever had.
watched the hockey game later (4-2 habs!) and then al gore and phish were on snl. funny funny episode and they even did the christmas song (we didnt think they were going to). al gore was a stiff politician as usual, but funny nonetheless. i loved the hardball sketch (i love darryl hammond's chris matthews impersonation) and the willy wonka sketch. um. phish had a couple of guest appearances and trey was grinning like an idiot the whole time. the songs were good and they did 46 days, which was my favourite one off the new album. i dunno what the other one was. i thought maybe i had something else to say, but i guess not. tomorrows another work day. oy vey. debating taking my laptop home over break. probably should. having problems with it. same ol ones. need a haircut, but i cant now. swimming is good for you. good cardio and works the muscles. i honestly forgot what i was gonna say. talked briefly to jessi today. yeah...i think im gonna go now.
14/12/02(1230pm)-here goes my brief review of nemesis: it was alright as a fan, less alright as a movie critic. too much focus on picard and data. too dark. the concept was nice and it had those humanist star trek elements at times. better than insurrection, not as good as first contact. john logan's gladiator influence definitely was involved in this one more, and he tried combining elements of star treks II and III. but it wasnt enough to save it. **1/2 out of 5.
lets see, yesterday was some work, and then talking online to jessi. she's gone back to tx and then to shreveport, then to tx, then to fl. so basically thats it til next month? :( um. i wrote part of a song... ive been back working on my keys... elise might have gotten her license today, but ill find out when my mom calls back any minute...today is more work and then al gore and phish on SNL. oh, bought a replacement backpack for the stolen one- its black instead of navy. habs game tonight against boston. hopefully we'll beat them again? i think thats about it. basically i stayed in yesterday except to see star trek, so there wasnt much to report. i hate that. today is pretty much gonna be the same.
13/12/02(330am)-im not tired right now. perhaps i should be. afterall, its 330am. this is what having a fairly unstructured schedule does to you. wednesday was pretty much do nothing. well, so to speak. i did some canadian history, namely played my keyboard, watched tv, talked online...i think that was about it. the same pretty much went for today as well. although i didnt even leave the house today. lauren came over this evening and we watched amelie, which was cool because even though i have it, i havent watched it in full in about a year or so. i love that movie. she so reminds me of...well, me. anyways, its been 3 years in the making and tomorrow finally is the day that star trek X comes out. even numbered ones always do better, and last one was first contact, which was good. hopefully this is also, because its rumoured to be the last. and i havent done it since junior year of high school (when insurrection came out), but im dressing up in costume to the theatre tomorrow :) yes, i am a star trek geek. always have been, always will be. although i must say, the franchise is losing steam. anyways, and so im probably gonna cancel out on the other movies i was gonna watch tomorrow other than nemesis.
um yeah, thats it. so as a friday the 13th treat (and with not many weeks left in the year for anything good to come out), here is the top 10 albums of 2002, by spencer ross, music critic, mcgill tribune. i welcome comments/feedback, although im quite satisfied with my current list.
1. A Rush of Blood to the Head- Coldplay
This has to be the best album of the year. It's the perfect music with peaks and valleys. Great arena rock and assuming it further's Coldplay's music career, this will be like the OK Computer for them. Spacy hooks and excellently benefitted by the piano, its hard not to like this one.
2. ( )- Sigur Rós
If AROBTTH is the best album of the year, this HAS to be the second best. It's a two movement album and extremely minimalist, straight down to the album packaging. Sonic masterpiece and extremely ethereal but amazingly complex. A must-see concert as well.
3. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot- Wilco
I didn't appreciate this album as much until I saw the documentary and watched Jeff Tweedy assume his role as the band's primary leader. While it may have seemed egomaniacal of him, I realised every band has to have one person in charge like that. And if it wasn't for him, they might not have made one of the year's best.
4. Sea Changes- Beck
Thank god he didn't do another Midnight Vultures and went back to the origins of Mutations. It's a whiny bitch album, but fairly complex in its definition and fairly evolved.
5. The Last Broadcast- Doves
I would have liked to seen this win the Shortlist of Music award. This is a very Britpop album, but its all all over the place in terms of musical stylings. They have a defined sound, but their songs aren't defined in technique, which brings a lot of diversity and sound to the album.
6. Power in Numbers- Jurassic 5
Amazing album. These guys were the only hip-hop act on Bonnaroo and for good reason. They are the ultimate current caregivers of hip-hop and if anything is going to give the genre a good name again, these guys will do it. "Break" is one of the best hip-hop songs since Public Enemy was doing some serious shit.
7. The Private Press- DJ Shadow
Another album that should have won the Shortlist award. Shadow has essentially deconstructed two songs and reconstructed them in his own image. Album lacks a little in the second half, but is extremely strong in providing a beat that is incomprehensibly genre-unspecific.
8. Have You Fed the Fish- Badly Drawn Boy
Never heard this guy's stuff until it came out, but he's very Beatlesy sounding. Lyrics are a little nonsensical, but I guess you could say he's like a Shel Silverstein to the world of music. Good effort and I hear its better than his About a Boy soundtrack.
9. Rings Around the World- Super Furry Animals
Welch band finally creates an album in regular English. Songs are all over the place, from Beatles sounding (one has Paul McCartney on it), to Abba sounding, to just plain old rock sounding. It's such a diverse group of songs that it's possible to like one and hate the next.
10. Trey Anastasio- self-titled
Phish's lead man comes up fairly strongly on his first solo album. Effective in harnessing his mini ensemble, his lyrics are strong and his jams are stronger. Stylistically, he is well-defined on the album, although its obvious that he's drawn in many influences from jazz to blues to latin. Excellent use of the Phish hiatus.
Runners-up: La Vallée des Réputations- Jean Leloup, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots- The Flaming Lips, Behind the Music- The Soundtrack of our Lives, Phrenology- The Roots, Come Away With Me- Norah Jones.
11/12/02(1245pm)-not too much goin on here. im in a lull with finals til arab politics on monday and...wait, i said that yesterday. im now looking for a recording of glass's einstein on the beach. want to burn a copy of it. anyways. yesterday after the exam, went to place milton for brunch with seth and nick. came home, did nothing, napped, watched the hockey game, watched a pretty good 24, talked online, tried synching my computer up with my keyboard- almost worked except ive got the demo version of cakewalk and it wouldnt let me save it. i want to get a crack, but i cant find any for the demo. or maybe cakewalk sonar is what i want? anyways. was trying to record some midi file of the new deal's "technobeam." anywhosy. i dunno what im up to today. probably some talking online and a lot of reading. it'd be nice to get a lot of canadian history done so that i can do arab politics tomorrow since friday is movie day. basically i see the schedule going something like this: star trek nemesis around noon, run lola run around 315, natqoyqatsi at 525. should be interesting.
10/12/02(130pm)-well i dont know which exam was a bigger waste of time? arts computing or art of listening. i was actually more concerned about art of listening based on its content, but that exam was easier than arts computing. first off, there was 8 known listening samples, 45 seconds each, played twice. then 4 unknowns. 49 multiple choice questions with them. then 20 multiple choice and 1 of 3 essays. basically i did all the multiple choice while answering the listening questions. the three essays were essentially: 1. write a conceptual piece and explain the audience, how it relates to john cage and lamonte young, how its performed, how its conceptual, etc. 2. write about your favourite period of music (classical, romantic, renaissance, etc...) and use musical whatevers to explain 4 pieces you like. 3. write about elements of non-western music and how it differs. obviously i wrote the first one. concepted in 45 seconds, brilliant.
my piece was called "Sol Sonata." basically everyone gets naked and takes a rowboat to fiji (or wherever the intl date line is). then they build an amphitheatre using logs and vines, facing the eastern horizon. first movement (exposition): "sun appears over horizon. audience is silent." when the sun is fully over the horizon, the movement is over. then they relocate the amphitheatre to the western horizon on the island. second movement (development): "audience moves amphitheatre to western horizon. audience is silent." final movement (recapitulation): "sun dissapears over horizon. audience is silent." then they leave the island the same way they came. basically its like cage's "4'33" in using nature as the true composer of the piece. plus it has all forms of sonata. and the music comes in hearing the natural sounds of waves, birds, etc... as the date changes over. the silence of the audience means that the music is created both within and without- sort of yoko ono-ish. brilliant spencer, brilliant. im like the modern john cage or lamont young.
anyways, thats it for exams for me til next monday when ive got arab politics. i feel like taking a nap or something. was up late studying. and talking. yeah. i think maybe ill download some music?
09/12/02(400pm)-what a perfectly good waste of time that was. 120 multiple choice- most like the ones from previous finals. many of them were really easy, the rest were worded horribly. sorry, not the wording, the answers. like one question asked if sound quality x would be a)good b)very good c)adequate d)poor e)very poor. yeah, just plain ol moronic. anywho, with questions like that, hopefully i did well i mean i knew it anyways. who doesnt know that http is located on port 80? or that one bit is 8 bytes? *sigh* tomorrow's exam is art of listening. should be interesting- a little more intensive than todays and i gotta work on that more. um...thats all ive gotta say about that?
(1145am)- well today is finals day 1. yesterday i read some arts computing websites, the exam looks easy. 120 questions where the first two pertain to bubbling in your answer sheet. :P anyways. what can i say, its my first bird course at mcgill. lets see. went out to dinner for tacos at 3 amigos with miriam, jessica, and mark. was pretty fun. the whole lola thing saddens me a little, sucks not being able to talk to her when she still talks to jess and miriam *shrug* twas a fun evening though. ohh yeah, and i went swimming. not bad- i did about 16 laps in a half hour. ended on 2 laps of butterfly and knocked the wind out of me. i need to do that more for cardio. of course i forgot to towel dry my hair and it froze when i walked outside. you could almost break it off. anywhosy, after that, i came home and did i dont know what, but i went to bed at midnight. first time i did that i a long time, and thats including the 730 that i would be getting up over the summer for the bank. swimming completely wiped me. and so i slept til 11 this am, even though i wanted to be up at 8. :-/ had a weird string of dreams, but the one i remember the most was the last one.
ok so the family came up to visit and we were walking around the mcgill bookstore. we heard eminem and there he was concept shooting for a new music video, so we were watching, went over for an autograph and while the fam was walking around the store, i was helping him with his video concept. it apparently had to do with star wars or some weird alien thing. so i was using my mom and sister as stand ins and my dad was over at the tim hortons getting coffee and then my mom was yelling at elise to clean her room. so eminem went into her room (which is convienently next to the mcgill bookstore) and started yelling that it looked fine to him. it was pretty weird, but in the end i got to direct the entire video. weird eh?
so thats where im at now. exam is at 2pm, so ive got 2 hours. and c'est ça pour maintenant. and for the record, tacos are cool, wherever you eat them.
08/12/02(1200pm)-yesterday was eh. in hockey the habs beat the coyotes 4-2. well played game, 2 fights. amen. i think we might win the cup this year. hah! not much happened yesterday that i can recall, pretty much the same as its been the past couple of days, although i did put that song of mine up. a couple of people heard it, said its dissonant, so id like to say how i went about writing the song.
to start, its all recorded on my keyboard (unfortunately i still cant sync up the midi to my keyboard, so i had to record an mp3 from a wav file using my microphone). ok. first, i played the left hand track and recorded it. the left hand track consisted of 3 chords repeated in semi-arpeggiated fashion, Cdim, D, and E. for the "chorus" there's a switch in those chords to Gb and Eb, sometimes throwing in min,dnighsus2, or sus4 arpeggiations. the next step was to record the right hand track. the left hand track started playing and while the time signature was fairly steady in that track, i started to improvise both with the arpeggiated chords and then freely. at some points there are places where it perfectly fits the diminished chord, and other points where it is just completely going randomly. following that, i did the drum track to a similar beat as the left handed syncopation. in some respects, it reminds me of the drum track on radiohead's "morning bell" from their live album, but its not exactly and the fact that its on keyboard drums is different sounding. following the drum track, i then went to synthesized strings. during the recording of the strings, i turned off the piano tracks and kept the drum track going to get a sense of the song's timing. the strings i used were difficult to time right because they were rather lengthy, but the sound i wanted. so keeping in mind some of the basic chord structures i had been working with, i sort of spaced out the length of the string sounds. without the actual piano as a reference, this made it freer for me to work with the strings. when the strings were laid down, i decided to add some sound effects in the background. the more i played back what i had thus far, the more i realised that it was fairly dark sounding, namely due to that one diminished chord which threw the mood of the song. for some reason i was sort of thinking it sounded like it came out of the vietnam war. so i started throwing a sfx story line into the mix. first there are waves, then effects ranging from machine guns to sirens to screams to blasts...in the end (although not as clear sounding on the mp3), there is a beating heart to symbolize the rebirth of life. so. yes its very dissonant sounding in some parts, its somewhat harmonic in others, but its actually not a random mashing of keys. and that's how i wrote "napalm."
that said, moving along. spoke to my dad last night. we had about a half hour or so arguement about media and politics and iraq. basically i think we're reaching those points in our live where as a father-son, we're clashing on our political viewpoints. im in a foreign country exposed to different viewpoints and learning everything for the first time, and hes in the us, but 30 years my wiser. i think mainly just being here has pushed me farther left-wing than he is. what else yesterday. watched a lot of snl. i think when i go back to ct, im switching to boxer briefs- all the comfort of boxers with the support of briefs. i might go swimming later. i know, swimming in winter, but i think it'll be pretty good therapeutic exercise. tomorrow is arts computing final, but that shouldn't be hard at all. its my first bird course and with a first question like "did you bubble in your name and student number on the answer sheet" i cant imagine it being that bad. ill do some studying for that today and then tuesday is my art of listening final. ill probably do some studying for that today also and then tomorrow after my exam. that's gonna be easy somewhat, but slightly harder than art of listening. my thing's gonna have to be about identifying song's composers, but im good with music so yeah. also the stuff about howw different musical forms are in different songs. then no exams til next monday, although ive gotta do a bunch of arab politics studying this week cause i wanna nail that. then jessica asked me to go with them for tacos tonight so that could be cool. jessica's a real hoot, i love that girl. cos even hos like tacos... :) yeah so thats all i gotta say for now i think. imma work on the crossword puzzle now, do some real work, and then get moving.
07/12/02(800pm)-well i just put up an mp3 of the song i wrote and wanted to get straight onto midi. its called "napalm" but methinks i might want to retitle it. more later? leave feedback.
06/12/02(130pm)-one of the most boringest of days. yesterday, my day consisted of getting up, talking online, playing keys, talking online, playing keys, taking a nap, playing keys, talking online, watching tv, playing keys, watching tv, claire teaching me how to roll, talking online, talking on the phone, talking online, reading some, falling asleep. today i might do some actual school reading to alleviate some of the boredom. oh and i could use to do laundry too. maybe ill take back up the story i started writing a couple weeks ago. i dunno, i guess i just lucked out with my exam schedule. i start off with my easiest exams and then work backwards, with a week's gap in between that and my hardest ones. meaning i cant make things a total waste but ive also got time to spread it out instead of doing it in one day really stressed. ah well.
so im going home in 13 days. its the ever ending story of me not really missing home so much as the people. i hear the biggest news is that the stop and shop in the town centre opened. whoopeedeedoo. im so excited i could pee my pants. so once again i realise that im just plain geared towards the city. i like things open whenever i want to go out. i love the coffee shop that doesnt close at 9pm like the starbucks in manchester does. going out to shoot pool and grab a beer at 1am. walking around the city at 2am and actually seeing people. i miss home but i dont. i just want to see my friends and family. hence why i enjoyed julian coming to visit- it was cool cause he got to see my world instead of just the usual doing nothing in CT or just going to xandos maybe once a month. and thats why im coming back for new years. aint no way im getting stuck doing the vernon diner at 1230am cause thats the only thing open past 10 on fucking NEW YEARS EVE. anyways, maybe i should move on to doing more with my day? i thought i had something else to say but i cant remember. :-/
05/12/02(100pm)-you know whats sad? on the cnn poll, 33% of the people arent concerned with international discontent with the US. thats a pretty big percentage of people. i think george bush has become like the stalin of our times. like ive been thinking more and more about it as this "war in iraq" is starting to take off. eitherway its going to happen. george bush has nothing else he wants than to go into iraq and he's completely pigeonhold them in order to be able to take unilateral action. and the american media institution has become a tool of propaganda. ted turner and rupert murdoch would love nothing more than for a war to break out so they can make millions on it with advertising and everything. its like in the bond movie, tomorrow never dies. thats what i like about being here- id rather watch CBC instead of NBC. you hear a lot more about discontent with americans- even canadian discontent with americans on the iraq stance. amazingly though, iraq has taken up so much attention that whatever happened to the hunt for bin laden? you want decent mass news sources? check out the following: CBC news, BBC World News, or TV5. not necessarily the best, but slightly more balanced than CNN. tv5 is pretty good and is globally watched although its entirely in french. when i turn on tv5 though, im watching the same broadcast as someone in mali, so they have to be careful on what/how they report it. whereas, when you turn on cnn, they dont even show you the world edition- they show an american edition, so it can be extremely propagandist. anyways, thats my thoughts on the american news media.
as for yesterday- was rather boring a day, same is today. no exam til monday and even that is arts computing so its not that big a concern. so ive got a little time to piddle before getting hard into things, but ive got such a great finals schedule this year that its pretty damn good. anywhosy, yeah, time to get moving on doing nothing. more later...
04/12/02(200am)-today was a half decent day, went to arab politics, talked about the middle east in 2012, i asked brynen what the political ramifications of a klingon invasion of iraq would be. i was hoping he'd kinda joke around with it some but he didnt. then went to fido, got a new cell phone the same cheesy nokia 3390 that everyone has. if you want the number email me. anywhosy...from there i went looking for a carrying thingy for it cause i dont want it in my pocket and i dont want it in my stealable backpack. speaking of backpacks, the company fucked up the order and now theres still no bags like mine at the bookstore, 2 weeks later.
so i went running around looking for a cheap holder and no one really had really really cheap ones until my last stop back at the fido store, where they had the cheapest one. actually they're pretty good. my plan is 30$CDN/month and is 200 weekday min and 1000 nights/weekends. so along the way i went to zellers and bought some more underwear (since a couple pairs are gone due to holes). thinking of switching to boxer briefs? oh yeah and i somehow got holes in 2 pairs of socks this week, so i got some socks. came home by metro since there was no way i was walking in the c.old in that temperature. fucking 7 degrees with a windchill of -10. and this godforsaken city is always windy. its fuckin cold, but again, id much rather this than 87 degrees. basically i came home and have been home ever since. oh and i did stop at hmv this week, the roots phrenology (****) and jean leloup's les vallés des réputations (****) came out today. havent heard the roots earlier albums, but the jean leloup album seemed a little tamer than his previous ones. my favourite track is "la muse et le museau" because its probably the edgiest on the album. the rest of the album is heavily acousticy and folky. but good. ill probably review them for the trib, post break since we dont do another issue til then. um, thats all the news thats fit to print today.
tomorrow's the last day of classes, including canadian history, a french test, and art of listening. should be interesting. as for tomorrow evening, i dunno what anyone is doing here. basically my exams (art of listening and arts computing) dont start until monday and tuesday, so im not in the biggest rush to start studying wed and thurs. although i might do some work for the more difficult classes. maybe play some music, maybe get some coffee with jessica and miriam or something like that, yeah.
03/12/02(300am)-good times. so last night was claires birthday and obviously the picture of her. today i got up, worked on my french presentation, went to french, gave my presentation, went to coffee with my sexy and intelligent friend jessica (got that hun? ;)) then went to arts computing lab to work on my canadian history paper. almost 900 words in 2 hours. not bad. it was such a bad assignment, but i apparently had a lot to say. from there i went to the trib staff meeting only there wasnt one so i hung around the trib office for 2 hours, just watching them proof for today's issue that went to print. its so exciting. go to www.mcgilltribune.com and look for the article on nero under the A&E setion. also, ive got 2 entries on the best/worst of list.
talked to my parents on the phone about a few things including cell phones (i should have one tomorrow), french immersion, and journalism/law. yeah exciting conversation. seth's tossed out the idea of going to new orleans during reading week. that would be the week before mardi gras and it will still be rather crazy there. ill have to run it by the rents though. it would mean missing coldplay, but they're two different once in a lifetime experiences and new orleans mardi gras with your university buddies might be a higher priority than coldplay. but thats assuming we can get it off the ground.
talked to jessi on the phone tonight. sounds just as hot on the phone as in person. tomorrow is exciting new music, the new jean leloup album, "les vallés des réputations" and the roots' "phrenology." also arab politics in the morning, laundry, and ive torn holes in 2 pairs of socks so i need to go to winners to get some more. oh yeah, tomorrow's 24. w00t w00t. im more excited about my piece being published. as for the rest of tomorrow, im rather tired right now. i wish the mcgill bookstore would get my new backpack in already. oh. yeah. and look at the weather above. for those too lazy to type in the conversion, we're looking at temps of about 5-8F and a windchill of maybe -10,-15? anyways, i really should go for now. more later.
02/12/02(1200am)-HAPPY 19TH BIRTHDAY CLAIRE!!!! she's gonna kill us for the picture but tis all in good fun. :-) we love ya, hope its a good one.
(320pm)-another month, another donut. anyways, yesterday was pretty good. went over to davids for some latkes and candlelighting.
so that was nice. i think tomorrow im gonna make homemade latkes from scratch. i did it last year and they came out really good.
ended up going to the hockey game with zoya. popped her "hockey cherry" :) so we played philly and we lost in overtime 2-1. it was a really good game and we played really well until that dumb fuck brisebois turned over the puck with 7 seconds left to give hackett no chance on making the save. i was swearing at him all during overtime and then he lost it. we had pretty good seats even though i was really looking forward to taking my dad to the game :-/ all zoya really wanted to see was a fight. anyways. we went to reuben's for dinner since neither of us had been there. it's actually pretty good. stuffed ourselves silly and then went home. i decided not to go to the hanukkah party and filled my flask up with vodka and headed to the trib staff 'holiday party.' that was pretty cool. got to meet some of the other editors, other writers, etc. they were rolling some fairly sizeable phattys. i think i got hit on by a 17 year old. she's apparently the trib editor. the one thats responsible for being able to share my stories via the net. actually the newspaper thing is pretty cool cause its definitely all teamwork to finish the product. im really starting to rethink the law thing. i think it would stifle my creativity. ive definitely got a lot of thinking to do on all of this. went home and fell asleep. now todays basically more working. a week from tomorrow is my first final :-0
ps. how come people read and dont leave comments? i know ive got regulars on sympatico, someone in molson hall, someone uses das... i finally talked to the person from clark university... im kinda curious as to who the other regulars are though...anyways, time to shower and work. everyone, leave a comment.
I've become a big advocate of Google. I think they truly have managed to break the hold of Microsoft and if anything, have also demonstrated the sheer power of the cliched Web 2.0. This finance site is no small potatoes either. The graphs are so simple yet so lush in data, and the rest of the pages are no different. Perhaps the most appealing feature is the portfolio which, with a Google account, lets you enter in how many shares of a stock you own and track all of its vitals in one page. I entered in my 401k breakdown and at any given time, it lets me visualise my account better than my 401k planner does.
Gastroenteritis
The stomach flu got me at the end of the year, making for the worst sickness I've felt in probably 10-15 years. Every hour, I was either on or over the toilet and at times, had to keep a bag next to the bed for those times I couldn't make it to the toilet fast enough. From what I've heard, I wasn't the only one to catch this horrible disaster in the past 2-3 weeks. I was supposed to go to Andrew's for the opening of the 7 year old time capsule and video but the stomach flu sidelined my plans (I'm finally at about 85% recovery) and for that, you are the asshole of the week.
