The first lines of "Arc of Time" by Bright Eyes go like this:
You can make a plan,
carve it into stone.
Like a feather falling,
it is still unknown.
In fact, you can listen to the first 30 seconds of the song here.
My plans aren't even carved into stone, and are still subject to many changes, but here is what I'm thinking for the near future:
First of all, I'm planning on moving to Waterloo and living with my buddy Matt and maybe 1 or 2 other guys in the New Year. Matt's still finishing up his degree there and I need my autonomy and own space back. Waterloo is still close enough that I'll be able to see all my other friends in the area pretty regularly. I plan on finding a job there and working to save up money until the fall whereby I'm thinking one of two things will happen.
1.) I'm going to apply for an M.Phil in Media Studies at the University of Oslo. Why Oslo?
a.) I like Scandinavia
b.) I like Scandinavian women
c.) Free tuition
Ok, the classes and program look really good as well, and seriously, I loved Scandinavia when Mark and I briefly traveled through a couple of summers ago, I'd love to do my Master's abroad, and it would be great to live in Europe again. I was also looking at a course at NYU, but it would require me doing the GRE, getting academic references, and all kinds of other junk. Plus, tuition for foreign students was like $10,000 US per year! I know that living in the capital of Norway wouldn't be cheap, but it can't be much worse than NYC -- actually, according to Wikipedia they're tied (as a side note, my last big trip took me through 5 of the top 6 most expensive cities in the world - I didn't make it to Seoul). But in Oslo I wouldn't have to pay any tuition - thank you Norwegian taxpayers for your liberalism and open-mindedness!
2.) If that falls through (ie, I'm not accepted) then I'm thinking of taking advantage of the Working Holiday program with Japan and going to live and work out there for a while.
I'd love to do both, really, and maybe I will, but one thing at a time. I know I could write a lot more about both of those topics, but I'll leave it there for now.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Plans Pt. II
"Plans" is also the title of the latest Death Cab For Cutie album, which I have been listening to lately. I was enjoying it until I came across the lyrics for Someday You Will Be Loved. The beginning goes like this, and gives you a feel for the whole song:
I once knew a girl
In the years of my youth
With eyes like the summer
All beauty and truth
In the morning I fled
Left a note and it read
Someday you will be loved.
I cannot pretend that I felt any regret
Cause each broken heart will eventually mend
As the blood runs red down the needle and thread
Someday you will be loved
You'll be loved you'll be loved
Like you never have known
The memories of me
Will seem more like bad dreams
Just a series of blurs
Like I never occurred
Someday you will be loved
You may feel alone when you're falling asleep
And everytime tears float down your cheeks
But I know your heart belongs to someone you've yet to meet
Someday you will be loved
Now my problem with this is that, to my knowledge, Ben Gibbard has neither psychic powers nor a time machine, so it is impossible for him to know whether, in fact, she will be loved.
This may seem like a small beef, but my problem is with the greater implications of it all. This is quite a good example of what may be the number one malaise of our postmodern existence: responsibility, or rather, lack thereof. He clearly states that he doesn't feel guilty about (presumably) lying to her, stringing her along and sleeping with her, and he gets out of it by claiming (in a melodic croon) that someday she will be loved, again presumably by someone that's better for her than he is. But like I said, he can't know this for a fact. Maybe her life will consist of a series of men taking advantage of her like this and eventually she ends up dying alone and dissatisfied. It's nice to think that there's one, true match out there for all of us, but I just don't buy that. What pisses me off is that he's shirking the responsibility of confronting her about the break-up, and then making it sound romantic by singing a song about some idealized vision of the future. Again, I'm extrapolating to larger elements of life here, but that's like singing to people in sweatshops "Someday you will have reasonable hours and wages," or to starving Africans "Someday you will have food," but then going about our daily business and doing absolutely NOTHING to make this a reality.
Now I can accept that not every relationship works, and that sometimes break-ups are necessary, but seriously, take some responsibility for it. Apologize, dammit! Confront her and let her know it's not working out! Don't take off while she's asleep, leaving a note that's optimistic about the future, and then move on to the next chick. That's just selfish and irresponsible.
Now, I know some people will think that I've put too much thought into this, and maybe I have, however;
a) I'm willing to bet that since this record has been released, someone else, somewhere has pulled this stunt in order to get out of a break-up
b) I really do think it says something sad about our privileged, Western, consumeristic society that we leave it to 'fate' to decide things rather than acknowledging that, in reality, we have the ability to change things but we don't because we are too selfish and it would be too uncomfortable for us to help others. I guess that's the meat of it right there, really. That's the analogy I see: he could break-up to her face, but that would be hard for him to do, so he takes off, leaves a note and writes a song. We could actually drop third world debt (for example) but it would mean spending more money and giving up some of our things, and we're not willing to do it. We would rather let other people suffer, at our expense, so long as we don't have to see it happening.
I guess the other thing that bothers me is that I really like Ben Gibbard's side project, The Postal Service, but now I see him in a different light. Not that it affects the music at all, but, oh, I dunno.
I'm unemployed and want to do a Master's degree in Media Studies...posts like this were bound to happen sooner or later.
I once knew a girl
In the years of my youth
With eyes like the summer
All beauty and truth
In the morning I fled
Left a note and it read
Someday you will be loved.
I cannot pretend that I felt any regret
Cause each broken heart will eventually mend
As the blood runs red down the needle and thread
Someday you will be loved
You'll be loved you'll be loved
Like you never have known
The memories of me
Will seem more like bad dreams
Just a series of blurs
Like I never occurred
Someday you will be loved
You may feel alone when you're falling asleep
And everytime tears float down your cheeks
But I know your heart belongs to someone you've yet to meet
Someday you will be loved
Now my problem with this is that, to my knowledge, Ben Gibbard has neither psychic powers nor a time machine, so it is impossible for him to know whether, in fact, she will be loved.
This may seem like a small beef, but my problem is with the greater implications of it all. This is quite a good example of what may be the number one malaise of our postmodern existence: responsibility, or rather, lack thereof. He clearly states that he doesn't feel guilty about (presumably) lying to her, stringing her along and sleeping with her, and he gets out of it by claiming (in a melodic croon) that someday she will be loved, again presumably by someone that's better for her than he is. But like I said, he can't know this for a fact. Maybe her life will consist of a series of men taking advantage of her like this and eventually she ends up dying alone and dissatisfied. It's nice to think that there's one, true match out there for all of us, but I just don't buy that. What pisses me off is that he's shirking the responsibility of confronting her about the break-up, and then making it sound romantic by singing a song about some idealized vision of the future. Again, I'm extrapolating to larger elements of life here, but that's like singing to people in sweatshops "Someday you will have reasonable hours and wages," or to starving Africans "Someday you will have food," but then going about our daily business and doing absolutely NOTHING to make this a reality.
Now I can accept that not every relationship works, and that sometimes break-ups are necessary, but seriously, take some responsibility for it. Apologize, dammit! Confront her and let her know it's not working out! Don't take off while she's asleep, leaving a note that's optimistic about the future, and then move on to the next chick. That's just selfish and irresponsible.
Now, I know some people will think that I've put too much thought into this, and maybe I have, however;
a) I'm willing to bet that since this record has been released, someone else, somewhere has pulled this stunt in order to get out of a break-up
b) I really do think it says something sad about our privileged, Western, consumeristic society that we leave it to 'fate' to decide things rather than acknowledging that, in reality, we have the ability to change things but we don't because we are too selfish and it would be too uncomfortable for us to help others. I guess that's the meat of it right there, really. That's the analogy I see: he could break-up to her face, but that would be hard for him to do, so he takes off, leaves a note and writes a song. We could actually drop third world debt (for example) but it would mean spending more money and giving up some of our things, and we're not willing to do it. We would rather let other people suffer, at our expense, so long as we don't have to see it happening.
I guess the other thing that bothers me is that I really like Ben Gibbard's side project, The Postal Service, but now I see him in a different light. Not that it affects the music at all, but, oh, I dunno.
I'm unemployed and want to do a Master's degree in Media Studies...posts like this were bound to happen sooner or later.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
I Heart Movies
I just re-alphabetized my DVD collection (can you tell I'm unemployed?) I counted and it turns out I have over 160 different titles (that's not including TV shows or music DVDs or anything). I think I'd be proud if I wasn't so disgusted with my own consumeristic tendencies. What's worse is that I noticed a few choice titles were missing and made a mental note to pick them up sometime. What's even worse is that there's probably a dozen or so movies in there that I haven't ACTUALLY watched yet.
Friday, November 24, 2006
Public Theatre
Like my fellow blogging cohorts, I have been rather lackadaisical with my blogging attempts as of late. But I found out about something that I just had to share:
I followed a link from a site about a recent prank that Ben Folds played at a concert in NYC. He got a group of guys from Improv Everywhere to come on stage and pretend to be the band. What they were really doing, however, was lip-synching to a CD recording the band had done. This CD would then 'skip' while the band was 'playing' and it would look as if they had been caught doing a fake performance. Then, the REAL Ben Folds came in, kicked the fake band off the stage, and started the show for real. The whole thing (and a better description) can be seen here.
This got me to thinking about the whole point of live music. I have certainly been to many concerts in my time, some of them in big stadiums. Sometimes a band is much better live, due to both vocal and instrumental improvisations (Pearl Jam, I would contend, is much better live than recorded). Other bands are TERRIBLE live. I've seen Our Lady Peace a bunch of times (mostly on festival line-ups, but also in smaller venues) and Raine just can't seem to get his voice to sound like it does on the records. However, I think it says something when fans can't even distinguish impostors 'playing' along to a recorded CD. What it says, I'm not quite sure, but it's very interesting. It's not like the venue they were at was a stadium with a capacity of 50,000 people. According to the site, the Hammerstein Ballroom has a capacity of around 3,300. And except for the hardcore fans at the front, it seemed as if most were willing to rock out to the actors & CD for the entire evening. What is it, then, about a live performance that is so interesting? Like I said above, I'm certainly not knocking live music, I love it! I just think it's a very interesting question - one I don't necessarily have answers to yet (feel free to post comments).
So anyway, I started checking out their site some more, and found out these folks are hilarious! They do stuff like this on the streets of New York City all the time! Apparently they even have experience as a fake band, since they posed as U2 on a rooftop the day of a scheduled U2 concert at Madison Square Gardens! Some of my other favourites (at least, from the ones I have looked at) include: dancing in the windows of department stores, throwing a birthday party for a stranger, a bunch of people shopping in slow motion at Home Depot, a business man threatening to jump from a 4 foot high ledge, a bunch of people wearing clothes similar to the Best Buy uniform walking into the store and helping customers, installing a high-class bathroom attendant in a McDonald's bathroom, a bunch of phones going off simultaneously in peoples' bags at a coat/bag check, and a bunch of people dancing in sync at the listening stations in a Virgin Megastore.
Videos can be found towards the bottom of each page, but I urge you to read the write up that goes along with them - they're really well done, and it gives you a bit of the context for the event, plus the comments that people report over-hearing are often hilarious. You can find a list of all of the events here - be sure to check out my favourite of them all: the annual installments of No Pants Day (as in 'trousers' for the Brits).
I followed a link from a site about a recent prank that Ben Folds played at a concert in NYC. He got a group of guys from Improv Everywhere to come on stage and pretend to be the band. What they were really doing, however, was lip-synching to a CD recording the band had done. This CD would then 'skip' while the band was 'playing' and it would look as if they had been caught doing a fake performance. Then, the REAL Ben Folds came in, kicked the fake band off the stage, and started the show for real. The whole thing (and a better description) can be seen here.
This got me to thinking about the whole point of live music. I have certainly been to many concerts in my time, some of them in big stadiums. Sometimes a band is much better live, due to both vocal and instrumental improvisations (Pearl Jam, I would contend, is much better live than recorded). Other bands are TERRIBLE live. I've seen Our Lady Peace a bunch of times (mostly on festival line-ups, but also in smaller venues) and Raine just can't seem to get his voice to sound like it does on the records. However, I think it says something when fans can't even distinguish impostors 'playing' along to a recorded CD. What it says, I'm not quite sure, but it's very interesting. It's not like the venue they were at was a stadium with a capacity of 50,000 people. According to the site, the Hammerstein Ballroom has a capacity of around 3,300. And except for the hardcore fans at the front, it seemed as if most were willing to rock out to the actors & CD for the entire evening. What is it, then, about a live performance that is so interesting? Like I said above, I'm certainly not knocking live music, I love it! I just think it's a very interesting question - one I don't necessarily have answers to yet (feel free to post comments).
So anyway, I started checking out their site some more, and found out these folks are hilarious! They do stuff like this on the streets of New York City all the time! Apparently they even have experience as a fake band, since they posed as U2 on a rooftop the day of a scheduled U2 concert at Madison Square Gardens! Some of my other favourites (at least, from the ones I have looked at) include: dancing in the windows of department stores, throwing a birthday party for a stranger, a bunch of people shopping in slow motion at Home Depot, a business man threatening to jump from a 4 foot high ledge, a bunch of people wearing clothes similar to the Best Buy uniform walking into the store and helping customers, installing a high-class bathroom attendant in a McDonald's bathroom, a bunch of phones going off simultaneously in peoples' bags at a coat/bag check, and a bunch of people dancing in sync at the listening stations in a Virgin Megastore.
Videos can be found towards the bottom of each page, but I urge you to read the write up that goes along with them - they're really well done, and it gives you a bit of the context for the event, plus the comments that people report over-hearing are often hilarious. You can find a list of all of the events here - be sure to check out my favourite of them all: the annual installments of No Pants Day (as in 'trousers' for the Brits).
Monday, November 13, 2006
True Story
Why is it that the things we want the most are the things we can't have?
And I'm not speaking in a profound, philosophical or existential sense here - I mean practical, down-to-earth examples.
It happened like this:
I was sitting in the bathroom today waiting for the bath to run (I like to read in the bath occasionally) while finishing my breakfast of a toasted bagel sliced in half, each side covered in peanut butter. I was down to the last quarter of the bagel and SO looking forward to it when the damn thing slipped out of my fingers and into the garbage can.
I will admit, with no shame, that I did pull it out of the garbage and considered eating it. I can't explain just how MUCH I desired that last bit of warm goodness in my stomach. After a thorough investigation however, I decided that it had been too tainted, even for me, so I begrudgingly put it back in the can. Honestly mom, it's still there. You can check if you don't believe me.
Also, this link comes via Kyle, and I think it's pretty insightful (I particularly like the one from Toronto). Check it out, if that's your thing...
And I'm not speaking in a profound, philosophical or existential sense here - I mean practical, down-to-earth examples.
It happened like this:
I was sitting in the bathroom today waiting for the bath to run (I like to read in the bath occasionally) while finishing my breakfast of a toasted bagel sliced in half, each side covered in peanut butter. I was down to the last quarter of the bagel and SO looking forward to it when the damn thing slipped out of my fingers and into the garbage can.
I will admit, with no shame, that I did pull it out of the garbage and considered eating it. I can't explain just how MUCH I desired that last bit of warm goodness in my stomach. After a thorough investigation however, I decided that it had been too tainted, even for me, so I begrudgingly put it back in the can. Honestly mom, it's still there. You can check if you don't believe me.
Also, this link comes via Kyle, and I think it's pretty insightful (I particularly like the one from Toronto). Check it out, if that's your thing...
Thursday, November 09, 2006
World Cup Humour
I don't know how long this will last before it gets pulled for copyright infringement, but I saw this on the latest episode of family guy and had to share, particularly with my friends in the UK where the show doesn't air.
(The first second or so of the video is screwed up, but it corrects itself after that)
(The first second or so of the video is screwed up, but it corrects itself after that)
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
An Ellipsis
It's no secret that I'm not exactly thrilled to be living back in southern Ontario. I'm not entirely sure why, but for whatever reason(s), it feels like a step backwards in my life. I'm sure that for many people, it is a good place/space to be for them at this stage in their lives, but for me...well, I'm just not feeling it. I guess that part of the problem is that it seems old and boring and uninteresting to me, especially when I know there's a big-ass world out there with so many quirks and quandaries just waiting to be explored. I think an even bigger part of the problem is that while I know I don't wanna be here, I'm not exactly sure where I do want to be...or where I'm going next. I'm usually a pretty laid back and easy-going kinda guy, but this whole liminal, between-life-phases kinda deal is stressing me out a bit.
Having said all of that, I'm determined to make the most of the time I have while I am here.
I've been doing quite a bit of thinking lately and have realized if I'm looking for gloom and misery, I'm going to find it. In fact, I've set my expectations for the next few months so low that really, life can only get better than I have imagined it is going to be. So I really want to seize the approaching days, and get the maximum, well, whatever...experience? I guess? that I can from them. True, I'm not entirely happy with where my life is at the moment, but I have the ability to make choices and really, that's all life comes down to - your choices about your circumstances. So I'm choosing...or at least, attempting to have a good time while I figure out what to do next.
Ride the waves...
Having said all of that, I'm determined to make the most of the time I have while I am here.
I've been doing quite a bit of thinking lately and have realized if I'm looking for gloom and misery, I'm going to find it. In fact, I've set my expectations for the next few months so low that really, life can only get better than I have imagined it is going to be. So I really want to seize the approaching days, and get the maximum, well, whatever...experience? I guess? that I can from them. True, I'm not entirely happy with where my life is at the moment, but I have the ability to make choices and really, that's all life comes down to - your choices about your circumstances. So I'm choosing...or at least, attempting to have a good time while I figure out what to do next.
Ride the waves...
Thursday, November 02, 2006
short video
a collection of videos i took during my time in china & japan. unintentionally, they all involve water in one way or another.
in chronological order:
1. the ferry from shanghai to kobe
2. a canal in kyoto
3. the seaside of beppu at night
4. a public onsen outside of a train station
5. my feet in the same onsen
6. a waterfall in kirishima
7. a turtle in hong kong park
i will upload my pictures to flickr when i get off my lazy ass
The Beard
I know that beards are controversial. People seem to love them or hate them. Here are my reasons to keep the Beard, at least for a while:
- I didn't grow one during the past 2 years when I was in England
- It adds and extra layer of warmth during the Canadian winter
- It requires less shaving
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