You should actually probably avoid reading this one

I enjoy statistics and cataloguing things (which is why I hardly ever get anyhting of value done), and by way of that I found this little feature on my iPod several months ago which tracks the number of times I've listened to a song. Here is that list from September of last year:

1. "Anthems for a Seventeen-Year Old Girl" from You Forgot It In People - Broken Social Scene (92 plays)
2. "Kid A" from Kid A - Radiohead (73 plays)
3. "Bukowski" from Good News For People Who Love Bad News - Modest Mouse (71 plays)
4. "The View" from Good News For People Who Love Bad News - Modest Mouse (64 plays)
5. "Maps" from Fever to Tell - Yeah Yeah Yeahs (64 plays)
6. "Tick" from Fever to Tell - Yeah Yeah Yeahs (62 plays)
7. "Friend of the Night" from Mr. Beast - Mogwai (59 plays)
8. "The Engine Driver" from Picaresque - The Decemberists (58 plays)
9. "I'll Believe in Anything" from Apologies to the Queen Mary - Wolf Parade (57 plays)
10. "Words So Leisured" from Franz Ferdinand (Bonus Disc) - Franz Ferdinand (56 plays)
11. "Stella Was A Diver and She Was Always Down" from Turn on the Bright Lights - Interpol (54 plays)
12. "Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts" from Apologies to the Queen Mary - Wolf Parade (54 plays)
13. "Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day)" from Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene (53 plays)
14. "Parting Gift" from Extraordinary Machine - Fiona Apple (50 plays)
15. "The Cold Part" from The Moon & Antarctica - Modest Mouse (50 plays)
16. "Finish Your Collapse and Stay For Breakfast" from Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene (49 plays)
17. "Jezebel" from Woman King EP - Iron & Wine (48 plays)
18. "Upward Over the Mountain" from The Creek Drank the Cradle - Iron & Wine (47 plays)
19. "Pink Moon" from Pink Moon - Nick Drake (47 plays)
20. "Twilight" from Pretty in Black - The Raveonettes (45 plays)
21. "7/4 (Shoreline)" from Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene (44 plays)
22. "Marching Bands of Manhattan" from Plans - Death Cab for Cutie (44 plays)
23. "A Different City" from The Moon & Antarctica - Modest Mouse (44 plays)
24. "Though I Hear You Calling, I Will Not Answer" from Blue Orchid Single - The White Stripes (44 plays)
25. "New Slang" from Oh, Inverted World - The Shins (43 plays)

And here is the new list, one year later!

1. "Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl" from You Forgot It In People - Broken Social Scene (116 plays)
2. "Kid A" from Kid A - Radiohead (86 plays)
3. "Bukowski" from Good News for People Who Love Bad News - Modest Mouse (82 plays)
4. "Pink Moon" from Pink Moon - Nick Drake (75 plays)
5. "Maps" from Fever to Tell - Yeah Yeah Yeahs (75 plays)
6. "The View" from Good News for People Who Love Bad News - Modest Mouse (74 plays)
7. "Inside and Out" from Let It Die - Feist (73 plays)
8. "Tick" from Fever To Tell - Yeah Yeah Yeahs (72 plays)
9. "Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Beter Day)" from Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene (68 plays)
10. "I'll Believe in Anything" from Apologies to the Queen Mary - Wolf Parade (68 plays)
11. "Jezebel" from Woman King EP - Iron & Wine (67 plays)
12. "Friend of the Night" from Mr. Beast - Mogwai (66 plays)
13. "Words So Leisured" from Franz Ferdinand Bonus Disc - Franz Ferdinand (63 plays)
14. "Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts" from Apologies to the Queen Mary - Wolf Parade (63 plays)
15. "7/4 (Shoreline)" from Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene (62 plays)
16. "The Engine Driver" from Picaresque - The Decemberists (62 plays)
17. "Finish Your Collapse and Stay for Breakfast" from Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene (61 plays)
18. "Marching Bands of Manhattan" from Plans - Death Cab for Cutie (60 plays)
19. "Upward Over the Mountain" from The Creek Drank the Cradle - Iron & Wine (60 plays)
20. "Road" from Pink Moon - Nick Drake (60 plays)
21. "Untitled 1" from ( ) - Sigur Ros (59 plays)
22. "When I Was a Young Girl" from Let It Die - Feist (58 plays)
23. "Stella Was a Diver and She was Always Down" from Turn On the Bright Lights - Interpol (58 plays)
24. "Horn" from Pink Moon - Nick Drake (58 plays)
25. "Parting Gift" from Extraordinary Machine - Fiona Apple (57 plays)

Wow. It's the same basic core group, but I guess I didn't think I listened to "Finish Your Collapse and Stay for Breakfast" that many times! I can't remember listening to "The Engine Driver" and "Words So Leisured" back in August, but apparently I did.

Gone are "The Cold Part," (#28) "New Slang,"(#26) "Though I Hear You Calling, I Will Not Answer,"(#45) "A Different City,"(#33) and "Twilight"(#38).

New additions are "When I Was a Young Girl," and "Untitled 1."

"Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl" still has a firm grasp on the #1 spot, 30 plays above #2, an increase from 19 plays last year.

So.... that killed about 1/2 an hour...

And I didn't like RENT either!

I can't sleep so here's a mini-rant!

Am I the only one in the "Universe" who HATED "Across the Universe?"

Man, ARG, what a load of bollucks!

2 1/2 hours of awful jokes ("She came in through the bathroom window" anyone?), horrid acting (Max Max MAX!), and terrible abuse of some of the most beloved songs ever written (Why all the talking in between lyrics during "Oh! Darling?" WHY WHY WHY?! Also all of the OOO oo oo OO OO OOOO-ing during Let It Be? Why was that necessary?).

Many of the songs didn't seem to quite gel with the context they were being used in. For example: Max singing "With a little help from my friends." Yes, it is played during a scene where he is carousing with his friends. Friends who WE NEVER SEE AGAIN FOR THE REST OF THE MOVIE! Way to set up a premise only to immediately discard it.

And an entire song dedicated to helping a minor character come out of the closet (literally, not metaphorically or socio-sexually [because she WAS a lesbian, right? I didn't just dream that, did I?]). I'm looking at you "Dear Prudence."

And how about we have Jude throw strawberries around with great rancour just so we can include the song "Strawberry Fields Forever?" Seems about as logical as any of the other choices!

Hey, why don't we introduce YET ANOTHER minor, inconsequential character 45 minutes into the film?

Can't think of a way to get rid of Bono's Dr. Robert? How about he just drives away on his freak-out bus and everyone's just fine stranded in the middle of nowhere because they all know the words to "Because?" Or was that metaphorical?

The use of "I Want You" for the army recruitment segment was interesting, but after a couple of minutes I was left thinking "Wow, this really isn't what the song's about."

Did anyone NOT see the film culminating with "All You Need is Love?" It was a foregone conclusion, so the least you could do is have it come about more organically. Like not having Lucy magically be transformed back into love with Jude because he has a rooftop singalong (which, also magically, is NOT stopped by the police). Like perhaps using a different (albeit less chantable) song which would better fit the situation instead of forcing the audience to buy into a wafer-thin premise?

The only thing that I really liked about the movie was Eddie Izzard. And I think I only liked him because he was essentially playing himself in a circus costume! I couldn't even stand the quintuplet Salma Hayek's as the sexy nurses, and that's saying something!

Boooooo! BOOOOOOOOOO! HISSSSSSSSSS!

So why is it that I can't stand one film which reappropriates popular songs and attempts to weave them into a narrative (ie/ This Mess) but I can love another film which does the exact same thing (ie/ Moulin Rouge)? Well you can put the exact same ingredients between two slices of bread, but in the end one of your sandwiches is just going to taste better than the other.

I suppose in the end I was left feeling like I didn't know what the movie was really about. I don't buy that it was about the spirit of the 60's, because what I got from this movie was a series of cliche's and no real deeper understanding. Too many characters clouded the plot from ever reaching anything approaching profound. I also don't believe that it was about love, mainly because I don't believe for a second that Lucy and Jude were in love or "made for each other" or anything of the sort. They were just two different people. I don't want to keep comparing it to Moulin Rouge, but what else do I have to compare it to? Satine and Ewan McGregor's guy (whatsisname) gave the impression of being destined for each other yet pulled apart by tragic circumstance. Jude was a sleazy dockworker who cheated on his girlfriend the moment he was in another time zone, and despite her best efforts, Lucy was not a hippie. She was a student protester, but not a radical. The bottom line is that they had some good times, but they do not belong together. They weren't torn apart, they grew apart.

Both in theory and in practice this film fails. In fact the story, characters, and production are such lame ducks that it's almost insulting that the Beatles music is associated with them.

The End. GET IT?!

One Month!

On October 24th, my neice became one month old (and according to reports, rolled over!) Let's have a little look at how darling she is:



And then to show that she can span the genres, here she is being hilarious:



And then on October 26th, my time in France reached the one month mark also! In that time I have been to the following "big attractions":

Notre Dame

The Eiffel Tower

Sacre Coeur Basillica

The Louvre

The Bastille

And the following "smaller atractions":

The Parisian Pet Cemetary

The Markets

The Point of Ilse de la Cite

Jardin des Tuileries

Shakespeare & Company bookstore

The Seine River

I've made a friend, indirectly. Jayne is a girl in Jenny's school who stayed with us for a couple of days when there was a transit strike. She lives outside the city limits and as such would not be able to get in for school, so she stayed with us. Just yesterday Jenny, Jayne & I (Steph's in Sweden as I type) went for a picnic on the point of Ilse de la Cite, which was very nice. We waved at the tour boats, saw three couples kissing (right next to us) and enjoyed sandwiches and cous-cous with a little red wine.



That ranks up there with the best moments of the month so far. Another was the aforementioned Pet Cemetary on the outskirts of the city. It was a really touching and peaceful place to be. It was also nice to go somewhere where there weren't a lot of people. Great as this city is, there are not many places you can go where you're alone. Steph went with me and we saw Rin-Tin-Tin's grave, but we couldn't find the stones for Faust the Sheep, Braveheart the racehorse, or Kiki the monkey. We did see the plaque for the 40,000th animal interred there, a stray dog who was hit by a car just outside the cemetary, and well as the famous St. Bernard rescue dog who saved 40 people and died to save the 41st. There was also a memorial for police dogs who died in service. It was really nice to see the care and love that people have for their pets who are really members of their family. My favourite inscription was (translated from French) "May your rest be as peaceful as your heart was good."

We also had our first Canadian visitor just a few days ago! Ms. Sarah Gartshore and her fella Mike were here for a week's vacation so they dropped by on Friday night for a crepe and a chat. It was nice and a little surreal to see someone from Sudbury, but I suppose that describes this whole month: nice, and a little surreal.

In fact, Liz "Filibuster" Buchanan recently asked what the strangest litle difference has been about ths place, something that caught me off guard. I can think of two. The first is that the movie theatre changes the titles to movies. Not just translations, but rather things like "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" becomes "7:58 This Saturday." Number two is that I can't find cheddar cheese anywhere.

And finally, because I nearly always talk about music on here, here is a progressive playlist of things I'm listening to lately. Jayne, being just a good all around person, brought me her entire music collection on DVD's yesterday. Wow. So I've added some of those choices on here as well. Thanks Jayne!

1) Lost & Found - Taken by Trees
2) This Side of the Blue - Joanna Newsom
3) Leslie Anne Levine - The Decemberists
4) 23 - Blonde Redhead
5) The Smoke Detector - Rilo Kiley
6) Life on Mars? - Seu Jorge
7) Rose Rouge - St. Germain (which is an area in Paris! Bonus!)
8) What We Had - Handsome Furs
9) Willie Deadwilder - Cat Power
10) ABC - The Pipettes
11) Ballad of a Thin Man - Bob Dylan
12) The Con - Tegan & Sara
13) Teardrop - Jose Gonzolez
14) Time of My Life - The Watson Twins

So there!

489!

Maybe it's just that I have the goal of 500 posts in my mind, but here's another mind-bit meltdown!

"Little Motel" by Modest Mouse has been giving me chills lately. If you listen to it with headphones on it's magical and shivery. I love a guitar line which can build and build and build on itself. Here's the video, which includes a motel, but that's about all the similarity.



I hope that you like it in your little motel
And I hope that the suite sleeps and suits you well
Well I can see it as time and a sight through smell and
Thats why its nice to be by yourself

Cause thats what I'm waiting for
That's what I'm waiting for
That's what I'm waiting for, aren't I?
That's what I'm waiting for
That's what I'm waiting for
That's what I'm waiting for darlin'

We treat mishaps like sinking ships and
I know that I don't want to be out to drift
Well I can see it in your eyes like I taste your lips and
They both tell me that we're better than this

Cause thats what I'm waiting for
That's what I'm waiting for
That's what I'm waiting for, aren't I?
That's what I'm waiting for
That's what I'm waiting for
That's what I'm waiting for darlin'

We trade tit for tat like that for this
And I don't think that there was an insult that was missed
I can see it in your eyes like I taste your lips and
I'm very sorry

Cause thats what I'm waiting for
That's what I'm waiting for
That's what I'm waiting for, aren't I?
That's what I'm waiting for
That's what I'm waiting for
That's what I'm waiting for darlin'

It rained and its over a shooting star
Landed directly on our broke down little car
We fold and we had made a wish
That we would be missed
If one another just did not exist

Cause thats what we're waiting for
That's what we're waiting for
That's what we're waiting on, aren't we?
That's what we're waiting for
That's what we're waiting for
That's what we're waiting for darlin'

That's what we're waiting for
That's what we're waiting for
That's what we're waiting for aren't we?

These cameras cost $300 f*cking dollars.

Actually, they cost $360 (for both), but plus taxes and shipping it's probably more like $400.

Damn it.

I was legitimately excited that I could rationalize the cost of them, but sadly I am left to be a little whiny tool about it. They're still really cool, even if I can't afford them. Maybe I'll win the lottery before they sell out (only 3000 in existence). Maybe I'll met my own Daddy Warbucks. Maybe I'll rob a bank. Maybe I'll just piss and moan for a while.

This is disgustingly self-pitying. Here: A Mantage.

Smile!

Holy Hells God Damn Bells!

The White Stripes are selling cameras! Seriously! Look!



Wow. On October 15th! That's on Monday! This coming Monday! TWO DAYS FROM NOW!

There is no way I can afford these. But I would be a filthy liar if I said that I didn't really really realy really really want them. Both.

The "Jack" Camera comes with a fisheye lens and the "Meg" Camera comes with a ring flash. Both cameras come with a "custom filter" (whatever that entails) and are of a brand which admittedly will do just completely random things with your photographs (ie/ strange colours, unexpected shadows, weird effects).

Additionally, the first 333 people to order will receive a "mystery gift." I am under no illusions that even if I could afford these beasts that I would be in he first 333 people to order, but man oh man those crazy Stripes sure know how to make people salivate over merchandise.

I wish they had posted how expensive/affordable they are so I can sufficiently nurture/quash my desire.

Let's look at those things again!



Phew!

Anyone for a half-boiled egg?

"The number you have dialed cannot be reached from this phone, you - negligent - monster."

Poor website. You were left out in the rain by a strange man who said he was going to Paris to be a writer. Sure, he occasionally threw some pictures at you in hopes that they would stick, but you were largely On Your Own. Poor website. Then he returned on a Saturday and promised nourishment, but we'll not hold our breath on that one. After all, he was spelling "the" as "teh" more and more these days.

The sun goes down in Paris on what ill be Thanksgiving weekend in Canada. There is a meeting of the various Root periferies in Peterborough, Ontario but one shall be absent. Namely, yours truly. Hard to find a good turkey when you don't speak the language. Three words have become entwined with my normal ways of speaking. "Bonjour," "Pardon," and "Merci." Usually in that order.

There are no parks that dogs are allowed into in Paris. This has resulted in a puppy with an excess of energy, translated into a need for more attention. I walk her sometimes twice a day for about 20 minutes, but she needs to run about like the holy terror she was intended to be. No dice, thank you very much, City of Paris.

The interface for this website has been translated automatically into French. I have to take an educated guess at most of the controls, and it's worked out ok so far. So far this has been an anomaly.

Cat Power has been doing it for me lately. Especially the slower numbr on "You are Free."

I am an uncle now. Hows about that? Jillian Rose Knoyle, born September 24th, 2007 at 8:19am.

Lost steam... Poor website.

Fairly important things