Gloryfades.org

Well, I officially broke tfl.org, which sucks cause I’m trying to update the Movies category. Oh well, it gives me time to write.

I wish it wasn’t Sunday. I wish it was Monday and I was on holiday for like five weeks. I’m so tired of this winter. I know I keep saying that but I really need spring to finally grace us with its presence. I’m liable to fly away to somewhere warm and blissfully sunny if it doesn’t soon. I dreamed of Ibiza sunrises each night this week.

Speaking of sunny destinations, I’m nearly done writing up my trip to Central America. I need to post the photos on flickr and everything will be ready for posting. I think I’ll post it in a few installments like the last trip to give everyone a chance to actually read it. If you read it in one setting I think you would go blind. I’ve tried keeping it succinct but that’s just not in the cards. How do you sum up three weeks of travel in like two pages? It’s just impossible. I think I’m doing very well, though. I’m halfway through and it’s about seven pages on Word.

In other news, I’m in a play at the synagogue for Purim. I thought it would be scary and bad but so far it looks good. The songs are appropriately funny enough (they’re just famous Broadway tunes with altered lyrics) and they don’t seem to be too upset with a goy nosing in. Plus, in one of the numbers I get to wear a wedding dress, which should be hilarious and nothing short of spectacular cause I’ll get to freak G out, except now the cat is out of the bag… Oops!

Man, everyone should back up their iTunes library if they haven’t done it yet. Honestly, both G and I lost ours this week (mine intentionally, his not so much) and it’s been chaos. With 23 gigs of music how do you find your favourites?!

Every damn time I try and resist it. The last album I lasted for at least 18 months before I broke down and bought it.. This one barely made it to a year. I’m talking about Coldplay, of course. They just so damn good! Each time it was a defining moment that made me turn to Coldplay. With the second album it was their performance at the Grammies. Their rendition of Politik with a philharmonic orchestra behind them was so gorgeous that I need the album right then and there. This time I was in Chapters and the album was being played on the speakers. I was in there for a good 30-45 minutes and it was just solid harmony. This is why Coldplay is so damn popular; they are just amazing songwriters that appeal to so many audiences.

Anyway, I have news! I have bought myself a trip to Italy! I’m incredibly excited because it’s been … wow, three, four years since I went last :S I enjoyed the trip so much that I’ve decided to do it again, on my own. I’ve never traveled alone before and it’ll be incredibly different. It’s amazing, the feeling, knowing that I’ll be going on this trip by myself because it just fills me with an anxious anticipation and joy. I’ll be going for two weeks. Right now my tentative itinerary involves a stop at Pisa (where I’ll be landing and departing from), Florence, Rome, Pompeii and the Isle of Elba (unless the ferry is too expensive). I haven’t made any other plans yet … to be quite honest, I’m not sure where else to go. Yes, there are plenty of places to go but it’s all overwhelming. I’m going to have to look harder in my Italy guidebook to see what other things I want to see before I leave.

So that’s my big news of the week. Exams have begun. I nearly missed my first one due to insane traffic on the highway, but all went according to plan!

So I’ve been told (once again) that I’m not updating enough. I apologize. It’s wrong of me to wait until someone mentions it to actually blog.

So I thought I would post some words on how the Neverending White Lights concert went last night. Gord and I went to see the show. It was only $15 to go so we thought, why not?

The show’s doors opened at 7 but we stood outside for a good hour before they let us in. Once inside we waiting another hour and a half for the openers to come out. The first guy, Marco Difelice, was good. He made his own music by looping melodies over and over again to get his songs. It was impressive to say the very least.

Unfortunately, we had to wait more, still, for NWL because they had a second opening act. I can’t even remember the girl’s name but she was a generic Chick-with-a-guitar and I wanted to hurt her by the end of her set. She was clearly in love with Patsy Cline … she sounded almost exactly like the woman and she even did a cover of hers.

In any event, she left and the band began. It was nice, but the music was at times louder than the mics which made it difficult to hear the lyrics, which I like to do. Still, they put on a good show.

We stood behind this Amazon woman who insisted on spending the entire show taking photographs of the band. The entire time I kept being reminded of something I read for class about the person who spends an entire concert filming the show. The person wants to capture the entire moment but fails to enjoy the show while she is there. What is the point of going to a concert if all you’re going to do is spend the entire time taking photos? It doesn’t make the concert more “real”. You aren’t going to remember what the band was even doing during that moment! I took two photos of the singer and I can only remember what he was singing during one of them! Trying to capture the entire show on film just lessens the whole “live” experience. You’re no longer paying attention to the band, you’re paying attention to the camera.

Ah well, it wouldn’t have been so pissy if she wasn’t moving in front of Gord constantly.

All in all, the show was nice. We left during the last song because I couldn’t stand up anymore. I’d been up since six and I couldn’t handle being on my feet anymore. Besides, we totally bypassed the rush of people trying to leave as well!

Oh, and I set up a flikr account. You can check out the rest of the pictures from the concert there!

I met David Usher, y’all! I have a picture to prove it as well, but it’s not the most flattering of me so I’ll refrain from offending your eyes with it. Needless to say, he’s the nicest, most humble musician I have ever had the opportunity to meet. My friend Amy was in the crowd as well. She’s a major David Usher fan (actually, she’s a personal friend of his. Isn’t that insane?!) and I got a chance to say hi to her before and after the show. It was good to see her and I won’t deny it, I kinda hoped I could have tagged along with her to go and see David personally and be introduced to him. But still, he came out after the show and signed things and took pictures with everyone. Awesome stuff.

To think, the day before I didn’t even know I was going to see him. I have to admit, it was the perfect ending to a pretty :S week.

I hate this layout already and I want it to die. If it wasn’t so damn cold in this room (would it kill someone to turn on the furnace?!) I’d sit here and make a new Halloween layout. Maybe I will after I bundle up. I’m trying to read up on my Naomi Klein for one of my classes. I finally got around to buying the book. I already know, though, that I’m going to have to take it a few pages at a time, which is so not cool. I need it done within this semester for crying out loud, lol. I just don’t like heavy-handed sort of doom and gloom books about how Evil the Corporations are. I know they’re evil, please don’t remind me. I worked for one for four years may I remind ya’ll.

You know what makes me love Trent Reznor even more than I do now? The fact that he embraces fan-based remixes instead of spurns them, like oh-so-many snobby musicians (*cough* Metallica, we’re looking at you! *cough*). He never ceases to amaze me, though. A few days ago, while perusing the NIN website, I came across the downloads. In it were copies of Nine Inch Nails’ current singles in ‘garageband’ format (GarageBand is a software application that allows users to create a piece of music, developed by Apple Computer for their Macintosh computers.) along with this message:

Well, the experiment of releasing The Hand That Feeds in garageband format was a resounding success. For those of you unaware, I essentially gave away the master multitrack sessions for that song for you to remix / reinterpret / ruin. Last I checked there were hundreds of remixes and info posted here alone.

I’ve enjoyed and cringed at what you’ve done with my song. Thank you (I think).

So …

Here I offer you Only, the new single. This time, I’ve expanded the idea from just offering the song in garageband format to four different formats that include Windows users as well.

Again, there is no agenda here other than for you to explore, experiment, and have fun with it. Depending on how this goes we may construct a more formal community for remix postings and/or possibly some sort of “official” endorsement by means of an EP or something.

I’m looking forward to hearing what you come up with…

trent reznor

How insane is that? I’ve been gleefully downloading oodles of remixes from the website which is right here if you’re interested. They range from the spectacular (Only - Butchered Goth Remix by GTB) to the craptacular (take your pick, there’s hundreds ;)).

Well, I’ve had a fairly eventful week and a half, I’d say. Today has been pretty boring. I watched the season finale of C.S.I. (directed by Quentin Tarantino). I had to watch it in parts because I couldn’t take all of the tension. Man, that was a good ending. I haven’t been following every episode of the show, but that was certainly a good way to end it!

So yes, on Wednesday of last week I went with Tatjana to see Snow Patrol in concert. The only way I can explain it is through a picspam, so without further ado:

The pretty Tatjana, standing right next to me. I’m surprised she let me take this! She hates being photographed

The lead singer of Athlete. He was beyond cute. Later, he takes off the jacket

Yay! Artsy! I was fiddling around with the settings. Most of the pics are like this, sadly. I know. I’m stupid. I wanted to get the lighting effects though and it wouldn’t let me unless the picture was blurry!

Even blurrier!

Snow Patrol! This is Gary Lightbody, the lead singer

And this is Ethan! He’s my favourite.

Green!

My favourite picture

Gary was so overcome by the noise that he put his hands up to try and block it Silly Irishman.

There are more, but you get the picture. I was pretty close, and not a lot of tall people were in front of me (hah, I love being 5′8″ somtimes :P) so it was a pretty darn good show!

As for Montreal, I had a pretty good time! I didn’t do a lot of shopping but we did walk around a lot. Montreal is very different from Toronto. For one thing, the streets are just insane. I mean, people don’t care at all about signals. I mean, pedestrians will walk out in front of your car like it’s their right to do so. I didn’t drive a lot in the city (I let G do that :P) but the last day I drove around before we left and it was just so different from anywhere else I’ve been. I didn’t hit anyone, thankfully! Nor did G. Also, the streets are in dire need of paving. There were SO many potholes, and lanes? What lanes? You made your own lane, lol. Very European.

We got bagels on the last day and they were fantastic. We watched them come out of the oven; they tasted SO good! Can’t even describe it. We took a dozen each for home, heh. I took a few pictures, but not many. I didn’t want to feel like a tourist *blushes* Those will come along shortly; I haven’t loaded them up and I’m too lazy to do so now.

Oh and we went to a very chic club on Saturday night. It was beyond anything I’ve ever been to and I felt horribly out of place, lol. The music was good, the drinks were expensive ($12 for an amaretto sour!) and we got ditched by a friend We went home without her, though, so really … she got ditched in the end! Ah well, the weather was cold on Sunday so we couldn’t go to Mont Royal for a stroll like we wanted to so we came home and that was the end of our weekend.

Happy Easter, fellow Christians! I’m about to do my one act of Catholic duty and go to Church. Normally I’d pass, but my sister has decided to take the children on a “field trip” so I feel compelled to come with my mother. I hate going. It’s only fifteen minutes, but it’s a pain in the ass to find parking and there are just so many people there .. it’s madness.

Plus, there’s always someone who has like this massive Easter basket that’s decorated up the wazoo. I mean, honestly, it’s just a ceremonial piece, does it need to look like Donatella Versace decorated it? Honestly, people. Simplicity is key, in my opinion.

I was perusing a bit torrent website last night before heading to bed and I found the most wonderful thing: With Teeth, the new Nine Inch Nails 5 song EP. Of course, I had to at least try and download it. I don’t know, maybe God was on my side last night cause it finished in six minutes. That’s the shortest bit torrent download I have ever faced! I mean, I know it’s not a large file, but dang that was quick. Not that I was complaining. Actually, I was a little suspicious. I began to get paranoid, thinking that the Feds had targeted that site and I - being the total douche bag that I am - unwittingly fell into their little ploy. :confused:

So I am enjoying myself with the gentleman. He mentioned the other day that I hadn’t updated, so this is sort of for him. And for Leah You and Blair better stop laughing at me, m’dear I might have to come up there and hurt you both. Then again, if you go to China I’m not going to be able to. But I will be sad if you move out to Asia. Do they really need more people there? I hear it’s overpopulated as it is

Ah, but I digress. The gentleman. What can I say? He’s a sweetie and he tolerates my Keanu love. But only barely. Honestly, I don’t know what else to say … hehe. Off to go bless our basket!

Szczęśliwy Wielkanoc, everyone! (Happy Easter, yo)