Ah, the joy of discovery. Do you know the feeling of newly discovering an older band, when everyone else has tired of them but you're so into their stuff? And then you look and it's like, "Oh, they've already got ___insert a ridiculous number here____ other albums!" So it's even better because you don't have to wait until their next album comes out to hear more of their music, yet it's all new to you. Wow, that's wordy.
Anyway, the following are a list of the top 10 bands or artists that I've discovered this year. In no particular order. Thanks goes out to FM4, hypemachine and UTNE Reader monthly music samplers because that's where I discovered most of these artists. Most of them put out a new album this year, so I guess that makes this list a "Top 10 Albums from 'New' Artists of 2010" too.
At first I thought this song was about missing somebody but then I listened more closely to the lyrics...
When I first heard this is was at work in Ottawa. I looked Lone Wolf up on Myspace and noticed that he was coming to Toronto for a show (not even - it was a support act). The show was on a Monday night. I left for Toronto for the weekend and watched the show on Monday, rushing to catch the midnight bus back to Ottawa for work on Tuesday morning at 7.
Yeah, the last two videos? You can tell that I love alt-rock with prominent drums.
I've only heard two songs from them so far but I really like her voice!
Crazy stuff. But I'm afraid their stuff is getting repetitive, as in, the beats are good, and I know it's supposed to be remixed, but they don't know how to end their songs...
Psych-e-de-lia!
This band's name is funny because I tried some capoeira for a while, and whenever I search for the band on a search engine I get some Japanese thing or the capoeira thing.
Okay. That's enough. That's way over ten, isn't it?
Top 10 "New" Artists of the Year
Boo for TV
So I had basically no television viewing time over the last few years, because a) I like to watch TV on TVs b) I didn't really get into the whole illegal streaming thing and c) For a while I didn't have internet. So over the last few years I've amassed a list of TV Shows that have gotten great reviews and that I was really really excited to watch. Over these past few months, I've tried to get into a lot of them and all I have to say is that I want those hours of my life back. So-called "great" shows are not that great. With one exception. So I won't listen to people for advice for TV shows now. I think I'll go back to sit-coms.
Show I tried to like but it turned out to be boring
Note: when I say try to like I mean I've watched at least 5 episodes
True Blood
The Wire
Mad Men
Shows that I've watched one episode of but I may or may not like
The Sopranos
New Shows that I love
Archer
The Office
Yup. Comedy it is for me.
Films - Dreams - Psychoanalysis - Myth
When I started becoming interested in more than a film's plot - I became excited about a film's camera angles and shot types and sounds and the technical terminology. And so I thought it was so different from literary analysis. English was my favourite subject in high school because it was an escape from all the other courses I was taking by the end but at the same time I sort of hated it because it just repeated itself over and over: okay now, we're going to examine a character and the world that the author has created. At the end of the day, it was cool but deep down inside I was always asking, "Yeah, so, what's the point? I can't relate, really, to any of these characters." Not the guy from Fahrenheit 451 or Brave New World or girl from To Kill a Mockingbird or Hamlet.
So I started taking cinema classes and it's all this stuff about visual representation and whatnot but then when I write papers about the films it's all this other stuff you have to consider like the industrial complex and the social and historical circumstances (as well as the "aesthetic" bits). And then you have to explain the character's motivations. And interpret it. Well. I'm becoming increasingly convinced that cinema studies is psychoanalysis of a text, with all the other 'circumstances' thrown in for good academic measure.
Myths, films and dreams all do something to our subconscious that should be analyzed pscyhologically, and they intertwine, which is interesting, but shouldn't we be leaving these to the psychologists? Cinema studies should be a social science. I was tricked into thinking it was in humanities! Or the performing arts, even!
Well, we'll see where all this theory leads to eventually...
S.A.D., anyone?
I don't care how many exams I have to take, just give me the sun! In the meantime, here is a sunny song:
Sweet sun! Leaves
Incredible meatless quesadilla recipe
1. Sautee half a medium smalley-diced onion but do not brown it.
2. Add a can of that tomato paste stuff which is nasty by itself but delicious with other things.
3. When the rest is warmed thoroughly, add half a pack of Yves' Mexican Veggie Ground Round.
4. Take a corn (or flour) tortilla and warm it in the microwave. Meanwhile, when the above mixture is warmed, add some cheese and red peppers or jalapeno to the mix.
5. Spoon the mixture onto the tortilla. Add a thin layer of cheese onto the surface. Microwave until the cheese melts.
6. Either roll it up if you can or press another tortilla on top and cut into triangles.!!
