Liz has struck up her own way of remembering the year that has passed… but I think I’ll to an honest to gorsh (yes, gorsh) summary of the year that has gone on, those significant moments in life that should be cherished forever…
Follow me as we explore 2002, the year that was:
31/12/2002
30ne
thirty
JeremyJeremy brought my attention to The Mayfly Project which, in its essential, boiled-down, heart-of-the-matter, roots is “summarize your year in 20 words”.
My entry:
job, no job, back to job, no job
no girlfriend, girlfriend
new job
basement apartment, big apartment
constantly no money
Twenty simple words… of course I could get technical and say I only used 11 words (job, no, back, to, girlfriend, new, basement, apartment, big, constantly, money) but why pull nosehairs when you don’t want to sneeze?
It’s a simple reflection of how up and down my year was, and yet, still there’s that one element that remains constant.
It’s also just meant to be funny, but not as funny as Kathleen from Toronto who wrote, just before me:
got fat eating Subway sandwiches
ran a marathon in my mind
shot 1,253 photos
replaced filling and it now kills
quinnine
Check it out! The “All New Spider Behind My Toilet”!
[I think I'll name it Oregano Flow, or maybe Hubert H. "Humpty Hump" Humphries the III (I'm in such a Digital Underground mood today I just gotta scream "Whee!")]
Thanks to Em the arachnologist who provided this fine specimen.
van weight
Written on the side of a garbage can at a transit stop:
Whether “shot from guns” or “shot through with goodness” General Mills & Quaker, “Adolph Hitler’s Brain Lives” receives laughture from Audience
mmmkay.
Comments Off
XXVII - echsechskivvy
10 days later…
ah me poorly neglected blog… wait, doesn’t that mean my neglect has been poor meaning I’ve been paying attention to my blog more frequently that I should if I was goodly neglecting my blog?
Ah the English language. EEet ees foon, yees?
I’ve been working on more CD Battle Royales, so watch out for those soon… many of the battles are being recorded on CD and being given away as part of New Years Presents…
oh, yes… let’s get into that shall we.
See, reasoning behind the New Years Presents is two-fold. The first is the big move back in November required the paying of three month’s rent (first and last at the new place, and the final month’s rent at the old place), thus I had no moneys for Christmas presents. The second is the whole commerciality of Christmas. It’s lost all its meaning (that being the annual celebration of the Jolly Fat Red Man (That’s as in Red Suit, not Wu-Tang Clan Member and Right Guard Power Stripe spokesman) wherein everyone strips down and dances around the dinner dable complete with an effigy of the Fat Man as the centrepiece). So I’m displacing the commerciality of Christmas and tossing it at New Years (a third motivation is the Boxing Day sales makes gift giving so much easier… well, cheaper at least… even though you can’t usually find exactly what you’re looking for, hey, at least it’s affordable).
Anyway, if you’re interested in the CDBRs, by the end of the little Battle Royale there will be a whole multi-volume set of CDs available from the various battles… more on that as the time comes.
Be excited, be be excited.
Comments Off
24/12/2002
top 20 songs for twenty-oh-two.
following up on my essential 7 albums, here are twenty tunes that took two thousand and two’s version of my head and kicked it around (ask your local P2P client for a demonstration), in alphabetical order:
[2003.01.02 update: added links where necessary.]
badly drawn boy - silent sigh: this piano-led song creeped in from the about a boy soundtrack like a millipede on a feather.
blackalicious - make you feel that way: this is your summertime checklist, reminiscing about what makes you feel good.
cassetteboy - fly me to new york: frank sinatra’s word twisted into a september 11 analysis. freakishly funny and jawdropping scary at the same time.
the chemical brothers featuring beth orton - the state we’re in: although star guitar is more indicative of this year’s model, the state we’re in is like toffee melting in your mouth.
clinic - walking with thee: the sinister title track, with insistent organ, lock groove and plaintive yelps. i r rumblor.
21/12/2002
19/12/2002
quarter
Dr Weird: Gentlemen! Behold! Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Steve: Umm, looks kinda crappy
Dr Weird: Yes! But I’m going to see it anyway!
Steve: But, but why?
Dr Weird: Because! I’m a sucker! Mwahahahahahahahahaaa!
echsiv
oh boy! this looks like fun
there’s an actual website called Nipples-N-More… and surprisingly it’s not a porn site.
18/12/2002
the Graig essential 7 “albums” of 2002
extrapolated from the spider, post 189
To follow in Gary’s lead (see previous post… no I’m not linking it you lazy bastich), the tops in the anti-pops as accordion to me… according, according to me. There’s no accordion. None at all.
Well..
Maybe a little…
1)DJ Shadow: The Private Press - what can I say, but the album flowes (not just regular flows, but flows with “es”)… it sweeps you up, shakes your ass, nods your head, makes you smile, and sometimes even drool in awe… and when it’s all over, all you want to do is live it again.
2)White Star Line: White Star Line - Sometimes your local scene - whether it be New York, Frisco, Winnepeg or Thunder Bay - sometimes your local scene produces something so fresh, invigorating, and catchy as hell that you feel completely ashamed because you hope they don’t become all successful and not show their face round here no more. It’s their talent that makes them good, it’s that little bit of secrecy that makes them great.
3) Blackalicious: Blazing Arrow - going from the best underground act to the best major label act without sacrificing one iota of quality or integrity is a difficult difficult charge, but that’s exactly what the ‘licious did… and damn did they do it well.
4) Lederhosen Lucil: Hosemusic - despite the silly titles and decidedly Bavarian looking lass on the cover, Lederhosen Lucil isn’t just another kitsch performer like Weird Al, there’s craft, humour, style and ingenuity in these songs, and you have to be in utter awe of her range and diversity. A mindbending work.
5) Future Bible Heroes: Eternal Youth - Some people are just brilliant, no matter what they do. That’s not to say that Stephin Merritt has never faultered (the last Sixths album was a little… difficult) but I have yet to find a song that SM has penned that is not witty, poetic or genious. Add those lyrics with some of his best crafted sounds and the soothing voice of Claudia Gonson, and it ranks up there with his 69 Love Songs.
6) Badly Drawn Boy: About A Boy soundtrack - Such promise as what Damon Gough could do with a budget and a studio to aide in his music creation. Half of the songs are equal or greater to those on Hour of the Bewilderbeest, the other half are soothing instrumentals for the score from the movie.
7)M
Comments Off
4.7958315233127195415974380641627 squared
On the streetcar yesterday I heard two guys talking, from what I can understand they work at a printing press for a newspaper.
Dude 1 - so I got back to the desk and (soandso) had put ink all over my watch
Dude 2 - no way
Dude 1 - yeah, ink all over my watch, trashed the thing.
Dude 2 - you guys are at it again, huh?
Dude 1 - yeah, I’m still thinking about what to do
Dude 2 - retaliation huh? You should make note of that and take it to (the supervisor)
Dude 1 - I put (something chemical) in his boots
Dude 2 - You did what?!
Dude 1 - I put (chemical name) in his boots.
Dude 2 - (*laughing*) … (*stops lauging*) seriously?
Dude 1 - Yeah. Just to give me time to think about how I’m going to get back at him.
Dude 2 - But, that’s chemical… it’s going to…
Dude 1 - Burn his feet, and over a twelve hour shift, he’s going to be hurting.
Dude 2 - Oh man. (Pause) Man! That’s not funny. That’s serious.
Dude 1 - Guy shouldn’t fuck with my stuff like that.
Dude 2 - But… Jesus, you can’t do that, I mean, with chemicals and stuff… that’s, that’s… brutal!
Dude 1 - I was thinking I was going to stick (some sort of) pins (*makes poking motion as index fingers point towards eachother*) into his tires, so when he drives off…
Dude 1 - But chemicals in his boots, you’re dealing with hazardous stuff…
(I got up because it was my stop and I just couldn’t listen to it anymore. Really, are people still that vindictive and primitive?)
my 7 esssential albums of 2002.
not to get all listy here, but since this is an easy way for people to glean music they might otherwise not know of, here are my considerations for the seven essential albums for the year 2002:
- interpol: turn on the bright lights. haunting new wave explorations of a shellshocked city, this quartet channels excellent atmospherics with a sparse drive. eerie joy division comparison, but don’t let that scare you.
- dj shadow: the private press. the dj saviour is back, weaving dense textures and brilliant programming to produce some of the most driving yet melancholic sounds of the year.
- blackalicious: blazing arrow. stunning rap that goes out of its way to show the sunniness that’s often missing in the urban world. beatflow and rhyming that knocks every other mc on their collective ass.
- tom waits: blood money. released at the same time as alice, i found the more jangly discordant rhythms here more captivating, like a junkyard mobile. this is the true americana.
- rjd2: deadringer. similar to dj shadow, rjd2 sculpts sonic landscapes except with a showy feel. works well with rappers overtop or just the straight sound.
- clinic: walking with thee. sinister minimal garage rock, with a gorgeous drone and lonely guitar sound. well off the beaten path, but in a territory that’s been worn in.
- múm: finally we are no one. delicate yet precise techno pop that goes like a music box, covering a normal childhood base that trips over every obstacle. it sounds like you’re underwater but you can breathe normally, making the muddled sounds all sparkly.
Jacob 22 and the Hooded Fang
The big reveal was supposed to happen today for the project I can’t tell you about, but the operative word here is “supposed” or moreover the operative words are “was supposed” or better yet “was supposed to” but alas it did happen today, and in fact we knew last night that it wasn’t going to happen as such today but we didn’t have more details than that at that time but of course it was 10:00 at night (roughly 13 and 1/2 hours after I awoke to get started on the final implentation of said poject-I-can’t-tell-you-about) when the project partner called and said the launch has been postponed and it didn’t come from him but the big guy himself… yeah, you heard right, THE MAN stuck his nose into our bidnizz and decided that all our hard work wasn’t quite ready for prime time (and really, he’s right, I mean we were so up shit creek and paddling with are hands which if you’ve ever tried to paddle with your hands in a creek of shit you know is pretty digusting and difficult), so it looks like we’re held off until the new year, but early in the new year, so it hasn’t been a complete wash, but knowing our partners it could be a complete wash anyway despite what they say so, you know, we’re going to keep working at it but at a less feverous pace than we have been (cause quite frankly I can’t handle it no more, I mean 6 days a week 8 - 13 hours a day… ach sed freulen???) and we have the time to get the user testing and all the content in primo (like the spaghetti sauce) condition (like pantene pro-v) for the big reveal which after all this waiting and hullabaloo I’m sure all our (our being the numerous individuals who have scrawled in blood their names on the non-disclosure agreement) friends and family will be really disappointed (cause, hey, this ain’t hollywood) or just completely whatever (*w* you know).
But really.
I’m not supposed to talk about it.
16/12/2002
twone
this morning
I woke up
with a woodchip
from the hamster cage
in my bellybutton.
What exactly happened last night?
14/12/2002
XX
Two new reviews over on the Monkey… by me this time (mr korhonen was getting pretty pissy about providing all the content hisself)
There’s Escape From the Newsroom… the last word on the slew of “revival” television movies.
und
Eraserhead you know, that David Lynch film that Brucio likes to sing about.
Hmm, looks like JeremyJeremy has decided to post a picture of the end result of his little incident from one week ago today.
In other GTAB sitings, today we saw Natalie on Queen Street as we were whipping across on the streetcar on the way to work (yes, work! on a saturday… I KNOW!). Unfortunately with the closed windows and the speed of the car, we had no time to yell obscenities at her before she was out of earshot.
After work, we ran into Jen at, where else, but a cd store on Bloor. We exchanged nicities and no-so-nicities (ah to joke at the expense of others, the less fortunate, the celebrities) then jetted off together for some friendly imbibement, of which I realize now I think I stiffed on the tip, so I owe Jen a beer or something… cause I’m normally a good tipper like Gore.
I have a Darth Vader keychain.
I need money.
Tomorrow, I pay the rent… in part
13/12/2002
toys preferred by girls and boys …and monkeys.
with christmas around the corner, santa is sure to know what every boy and girl wants as a gift, but does he know why?
scientists are exploring gender preferences for toys by recording which toys male and female monkeys prefer to play with, and studies seem to show that the male monkeys prefer cars and balls, females prefer dolls and pots and both like books and stuffed animals. this seems to suggest a hard-wired preference, although i’m sure the females wouldn’t mind a g.i. joe figure and the males one of those toy ovens, because man those ovens can fly when you throw them.
Comments Off
monkey lander.
although nasa has backed off on using monkeys in space like they used to before americans went into space, it would still be a long way of before monkeys land spaceships like in this flash game.
Comments Off
girl talk: secret diary.
one of the past times i was in the big smoke of toronto, standard issue dictates that come midnight, brave new waves takes over the radio (god bless cbc radio two for sneaking in some radio 3 goodness) and i heard this strange song that took the price is right theme and totally shook it around.
turns out it was girl talk, a glitch-pop dj who works in a plunderphonics/kid 606 vein, where easily identifiable songs or parts of songs are twisted around to change the meaning or just for the sake of having some fun. standard hockey arena songs, tv show themes, evil 1980s hits (girls just wanna have fun) …the targets are easy but the results are quite engaging, where innocent pop songs run smack into either some hard rap or just explosive techno noise.
if you’ve never experience this idea of glitch-pop or bastardized sampling run amok, secret diary is a good place to start off with. however, once your curiousity is piqued, i would wholly recommend to go with the grandaddy of them all: john oswald’s plunderphonic, which you can download since the original album was destroyed by the canadian government (or alternately pick up the best bits via his 69/96 retrospective).
Comments Off