Poke

This is a new logo I designed for the Sanborn Perris Map Company. What do you think? Just kidding. Can you imagine? Holy cow! No, this actually came from Bibliodyssey, which never fails to prove that the internet can actually be good for something.

I have been doing quite a lot of work, though, including some logo design. I guess that at least partially explains the infrequency of my bloggage lately. That, a busy social life, and a dangerous obsession with the TV show Damages, the first three seasons of which are all available online (thanks, Johanna). Plus, Alison doesn't generally take many pictures in the winter, so the necessity of my stringing together some ostensibly entertaining words as a way of sharing her work is greatly lessened.

Those are my excuses, anyway. Now, what's wrong with the rest of y'all? The blogosphere as we know it has all but dried up in the past few months! Is it Facebook? It's Facebook, isn't it? Facebook!

OK, well, as a gesture of goodwill toward those who prefer their correspondence in 420-or-fewer-character-sized packages, I'll keep this short and disjointed. Here's a little song I've been saving to share with you. Go ahead and like it, if you wish.

Civic Pride

Nothing much to see here. We are good. Winter's doing its thing. Alison's been taking some yoga classes. I'm teaching my old friend Alain how to play guitar. On Wednesday I'm going to a private high school's career fair to talk to some kids about how to be a graphic designer (drop out of school, get your friends to show you how to do graphic design, charge outrageous amounts to stay home and sit in front of a computer in your pajamas). The Lodge has a rare show coming up next week.

And there's been skating. That's probably the most exciting thing. The city built a huge speed skating oval on the Commons for the Canada Winter Games, and the public is allowed to use it until the competitions start. For free! And they even have skates for you to borrow. Modern skates. For free!

I had this idea that I'm a terrible skater and should probably never try it again, from having gone out a few years ago with my friend Meg and a rusty old pair of skates I bought from someone on Kijiji for five bucks or something. It was a painful and humiliating time — no fun at all. I remembered that I was never very good at it as a kid, and convinced myself that I was even worse at it as an adult.

But everyone on the Commons looked like they were having such fun, and there was such a huge range of ability going on, that I just had to try again. And I'm so glad I did, because it turns out having a decent pair of skates makes all the difference. Alison and I both skated around and around in the windless snow for an hour or so with Meg and a couple of her friends, to the blaring music of a local radio station that I would normally despise, but somehow it seemed just fine that night. Then we had some hot chocolate and a greasy, sugary thing called a "Beaver Tail."

I wish I had footage of the actual experience to show you, because you'd see both of us holding hands, wobbling around, and grinning goofily like a couple of little kids. But I don't. This is pretty much what the scene looks like, though. Sometimes I think this city's pretty great.

Well, This Is Just Really, Really Weird

Maybe you'll like it. There are no cats in it, though.

Writing Is Dead; Long Live Pictures of Cats!

Oh yeah, I've got you internet people sussed now.

I Got a New Laptop...

with a camera in it! Here's a little movie made from little photos taken with the built in camera. I didn't intend to string them all together later, but Andrew suggested it! And then we added music. hehehe

This Is the Kind of Thing I've Been Talking About

Why does the pope have anything at all to say about scientific, causal explanations of events? Because he sees Christianity as a religion about belief, and he wants to keep it that way. If your religious practice is not about how you personally experience the world, but about what you believe is or is not — actually and inarguably — the case in it, you will side with others whose beliefs agree with yours and against those who disagree. And that kind of thinking is the only thing that keeps an antiquated but powerful institution like the Catholic Church going.

So we find His Holiness swooping in after the scientific community has found the most verifiable explanation of a matter, in order to give their work his redundant blessing and tack a little rider onto the end, based on nothing but his desire to maintain the status quo. "Good work there, boys. Oh, and by the way, God is responsible for what you discovered, because I decree it."

In this case, however, he's revealed his ignorance of the principle he's ostensibly endorsing, because the really interesting feature of the Big Bang is that it can't properly be said to have a cause. The Big Bang, by definition, created not only all the matter that makes up our universe, but time itself. There was no time before it. Cause and effect, along with all other principles by which we know our universe to work, break down when we look back to that moment. That's what makes it a "singularity."

So God is here being credited with a logical impossibility. I know He's supposed to work in mysterious ways, but logically impossible ways seems to go a bit far. It reminds me of the medievals wondering whether His omnipotence should cover crazy cases like making a stone so heavy that He can't lift it.

Another way to look at it is to say that whatever might have happened before the BB, assuming it even makes sense to talk about such a time, is irrelevant to us because once the BB happened, time and space started over. It created a completely clean slate. So from this point of view, if God did cause the universe to come into existence, He destroyed Himself in the process and no longer has any effect on it. Of course, the same principle applies if it was created by Satan or a mischievous kid with a chemistry set. The true cause can never be known, but fortunately it makes absolutely no difference to anything.

Twenty Ten Ten

I hope everyone's holidays were pleasant and cheery. Alison and I had such a nice time seeing folks in Toronto over Christmas. Thanks so much to all the loved ones we got to be with, and apologies to those we had to snub this time around.

Now it's back to the usual routine in a new year, and time for the annual roundup of the last year's best albums. Or at least the ones that made it into my consciousness and stuck around long enough for me to fall in love with them. I feel like it's a good crop this year, possibly better than the last couple. Just look at the cover artwork, for example. Have you ever seen a more tantalizing display of colour and imagery?

Instead of audio samples, this time around I've included links to YouTube "videos," which are in most cases just a still image of the album cover set to the soundtrack of one of the album's songs. It's a lot easier (and more legal) for me this way, and sometimes even gives you something to look at while you're checking out the tunage.

As usual, the top ten list is in no particular order. OK, well, it's actually in alphabetical order, but that's just to make sure no favouritism snuck in anywhere. I love all these records like children, and could never possibly pick a favourite. So that means we start with the ubiquitous...

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
It's less dramatic than their previous albums, and that somehow makes it better. Like they're not trying quite so hard now. The songs are good enough that they can be delivered in a low-key way so that you want to hear them again immediately, instead of just feeling exhausted. Some of it even sounds a bit like old Springsteen, which normally for me wouldn't be a virtue, but it works great here.
Sample

Best Coast - Crazy for You
There's been this 2010 trend of lo-fi garage-poppy girl groups coming from California. I heard Dum Dum Girls first, and really liked the sound. This band is a bit slicker than them, and already loved by seemingly everyone on the planet, so maybe that makes it not quite as legit. And I would definitely feel cooler including a band named after a Talk Talk song on this list. But the songs on this album just get so stuck in my head — and the stickiness is so enjoyable — that I'd be the worst kind of posing hipster if I didn't just bite the bullet and go along with the crowd on this one.
Sample

Caribou - Swim
Alison and I went to see Caribou in June when he/they played at The Paragon. I was worried that it probably wouldn't be as great as when we saw him/them in 2005 at The Marquee (same club, different name), because I was still unconvinced of this album's merits. I had liked Andorra so much because of the way Dan Snaith had broken out of the limits of electronica by playing real drums and having multi-parted melodies and even singing. So when he decided to make Swim a more dance-oriented album, it just sounded to me like an excuse for regression. But watching a band perform all the songs live really turned me around. He's still got tons of catchy and creative ideas; he's just emphasized the beats more and gotten more meticulous about the production.
Sample

Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
Still processing this one, as I just finally picked it up last month. The sound of this band's a bit hard to pin down, frankly. But I know the album belongs on here because every time I listen to it I'm surprised by how much more I like it than Microcastle. Which I loooooved.
Sample

Julian Lynch - Mare
Another sound that's hard to describe. Some of it's kind of like Eno, some sounds a bit like quieter Animal Collective, and some is nothing like either of those things. Definitely subdued, almost ambient sometimes, but there's also lots of tricky stuff going on in there. This guy is an ethnomusicology major and seems to be able to play just about any instrument. For the first few weeks we had Mare on the iPod in the car, every time it came on we'd both ask simultaneously, "What is THIS?" because the songs just went so well with whatever the scenery happened to be. Now we'll recognize it, but it's still on there and it's still just as intriguingly pleasant.
Sample

Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid
Here's the real surprise find of the year. It's pretty removed from the usual rocks I look under for new music (R&B? American pop? Huh?), but luckily my old friend Carol tipped me off about it, and I'm so grateful. This woman is super cool and all over the place musically. I can hear some James Brown, Prince, and Stevie Wonder in there, but there's also a lot of theatrical, musical music, as well as classical, folk, and psychedelic touches. And the whole thing is a science fiction concept album in two "suites," each introduced by an unapologetically orchestral overture. Plus, she can sing like nothing you've ever heard. If this sample video doesn't knock your socks off, you must have argyle permanently tattooed on your ankles.
Sample

Joanna Newsom - Have One on Me
Joanna Newsom just keeps ratcheting up the ambition with every new album. Three discs! And not a weak spot. If you already hated her, this one might not exactly turn you around. But if you were sort of on the fence — like maybe if that voice were just a LITTLE less screechy and unpredictable in its Lisa Simpson flights of fancy, you might feel a bit more charitable toward her admittedly gorgeous songs — I'd say go ahead and give it a try. There's definitely a new, mellower tone there, although you couldn't really say her singing's any less kooky. And the songs themselves are, of course, stellar.
Sample

The Radio Dept. - Clinging to a Scheme
There were a couple of songs on the Marie Antoinette soundtrack that made me unable to concentrate on the visuals temporarily because they sounded so dreamy. They were both by these guys. I'd been looking for an album ever since, and I guess one existed, but I could never find it. Then this new one showed up in April. Luckily, it's all as hazy and sunny and achingly pretty as I'd been hoping.
Sample

Tame Impala - Innerspeaker
I don't know how many people I recommended this album to over the course of 2010. A lot. It's heavy. It's catchy. It's psychedelic and Australian. It was mixed by Flaming Lips producer, Dave Fridmann. The singer sounds like John Lennon. If that's not enough to convince you to hit the "Sample" link, I don't know what else I could possibly say.
Sample

Wild Nothing - Gemini
Yet another band I'd never heard of before this year. Somebody's definitely spiked the zeitgeist, and I'm not complaining. Wild Nothing are something like Radio Dept. in their dreaminess, but maybe a bit more literal in their '80's revivalism. I feel only the mildest twinge of guilt at seeing nothing wrong with that. "Live In Dreams" has been on every mix CD I've made in the past six months. It makes my heart hurt in the best possible way.
Sample

Honourable Mentions:
Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz
Daft Punk - Tron: Legacy Original Sountrack
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today
Robyn - Body Talk
Dungen - Skit I Allt

Merry Christmas

RIP, Captain Beefheart

I almost forgot. Don Van Vliet died three days ago, at 69, from multiple sclerosis. He may be dead, but he sure wasn't weird. Musically irrelevant celebrities the world over mourn our loss by listening to Kandy Korn until their minds are fully blown.

Christmas Viewing

A Charlie Brown Christmas was on TV this morning. I somehow got through the whole thing one more time. It was pretty messy, though. Why does it make me more emotional every year? Am I basically just referencing memories of emotion at this point, rather than actually being made to feel something more honestly by the content? Maybe, because Linus's reading of Luke seems to hit me harder than anything else, and I don't even believe that stuff. However, if you can take belief out of the equation, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men" is a pretty valid and potent sentiment, I have to admit.

So, everyone needs to see Tron: Legacy over the holidays. It's so cool, and exactly what science fiction is supposed to be like, at least from the point of view of someone whose sci-fi experience is mostly from the '70s and early '80s. Feels like Logan's Run and Bladerunner and, of course, the original Tron. The Vangelis-y music by Daft Punk is at least half of what's so great about it. And it's in 3D! Watch out when Jeff Bridges' creepily youthified face moves forward on the z-axis. Yikes!

In case there's any question...

I do NOT want one of these creepy things for Christmas. Thanks.

Welcome, Percy!

And congratulations, Tom & Jenny!

Get Out While You Still Can II

If anyone needed proof that post-modernism represents the end of human civilization, I just saw Gang of Four's anticonsumerist post-punk anthem "Natural's Not In It" being used to sell a video game.

Get Out While You Still Can

OK, I guess I owe people some words and pictures. There seriously hasn't been a lot going on around here. The weather gets colder, we stay inside more, watch a lot of streaming TV shows on the internet... Mad Men and Project Runway are both over, so I can't even rant about those, except to say — Gretchen?! Come on! I dunno... Parenthood is decent; do people like that? Last episode was pretty weak on plot development, but generally I like it OK, for a show about a beautiful, white, privileged family.

We did get outside some the past couple of weekends. Two Saturdays ago the sun was shining in that nice way it sometimes does, so we decided to drive to Polly Cove before it disappeared (the sun). Which, I have to say, it is doing very early these days. Maybe a little too early. I don't want to complain, and I know it has its schedule to follow and everything, but doesn't it know that there are starting to be Christmas signifiers everywhere, and that's depressing enough for people without plunging them into darkness at like 4:00 in the afternoon?

Anyway, we wanted to go to Polly Cove, which is just before you get to Peggy's Cove and so is very similar in landscape and picturesqueness, but there's no lighthouse and therefore no gift shop or hordes of people swarming around and talking on their cell phones. But we got on the wrong road (my fault), so we went to Terence Bay instead, which is slightly less picturesque.




It was pretty there and Alison got some pictures, but windy and COLD, and there wasn't really anywhere to walk around very much. So we got back in the car and made our way back to Polly Cove just before the sun went down.




This is one of my favourite places in the world to just sit and watch. Something about the particular combination of elements here puts me immediately into a magical stance toward the world, where everything is alive and it all loves me. This is not a feeling I would classify as belief, mind you. Yes, I am preparing you for the final installment in the What If It's Not About Belief rant, coming soon.

Then last weekend we felt like going for a longer hike, so we drove all the way out to Blomidon. We'd hiked around on the trails there a little bit before (see post from two years ago), but never done the big one around the cliff. The weather was perfect for it: unseasonably warm with no wind. Pretty gorgeous spot, and high enough above the Valley that it doesn't even smell like cow poop!





So, that should tide us over for outdoorsy beauty as we head into the dark days of December.

NEXT: Less marveling, more ranting!

Information Theory 101

"The scenario is this: A poor student goes off to a college far from home. His parents wonder whether he will be able to manage. They know they cannot help worrying. So they ask him to phone home every Sunday at four to tell them he is well. The student complains that he has almost no money and that spending all those coins calling home will be an expensive business. So he would rather not. But they agree on a solution: He will phone on Sundays at four only if he is having problems. If he does not phone, it is because everything is going well. So he rarely calls. But he sticks to his side of the deal.

"He thus transfers a message to his parents every Sunday without having to spend a cent — assuming, that is, the phone system is working. You can transmit a message without spending money and without any physical representation at all. Assuming that there is a connection.

"[...] So there are stacks of messages in a phone that does not ring. As long as you have paid your bill."

Tor Nørretranders
The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size

Acceptable Things Come to Those Who Wait

OK, after three weeks of no blogging, this is possibly the most anticlimactic post ever, but I just had to relate that I literally could not stop laughing tonight after seeing this portrait on Awkward Family Photos. The caption is "Thanks to the special people behind the scenes."


Like, really couldn't stop. I was crying and gasping for air and eventually trying not to think about it anymore. I don't know why it struck me as the funniest thing in the world at that moment. I mean, it's funny, sure, but this actually felt like I might be going a little crazy. Something about those hands reaching in, trying to get the kids into just the right position while the whole family is in complete agony... Uh oh, I'm starting to chuckle again. Better stop talking about it.

Otherwise, nothing really is going on around here. Nothing anyone would want to hear about, anyway. Oh, except that my reading was interrupted for awhile because my Kobo broke. I sent it back to the company, though, and they sent me a new one pretty quickly. So now I'm back into Anne of Green Gables, which is still, Jennifer 1, as charming as before. And I've finished Knut Hamsun's Pan, which, Jennifer 2, was really great and thanks for the recommendation. At first I wasn't sure I would like it — so much description of woods and nothing really happening — but then I started getting into it and pretty soon I was hoping nothing would happen because all the description had a real magical quality to it that might get ruined by action. Of course, stuff does eventually happen, and it seems all the more dramatic by comparison. Especially the end of Chapter 34, which may be the most tragic thing I've ever read. I felt like someone had just punched me hard in the chest. Yow. Really though, thanks!

The Fall

Hey, all! Happy Thanksgiving!

It was a bee-U-ti-ful day here in Halifax so we went for a little walk. We checked out the Shearwater Flyer Trail in Dartmouth and now our feet hurt! But it was worth it. Here are a few pics. The first two aren't actually from today, but I thought they were cute. It's Abbie, the sweet little neighbour kitty who meows grumpily when you say hi to her. Anyway... I hope you all had a lovely day as well.

-Ali

Granite & Ivory

So here are those photos of Prospect I promised you. I guess the waves I mentioned are not really in evidence. But there's plenty of rocks. And I think the mood of the whole place is captured quite nicely — eery, austere, and beautiful. I know you Facebookers have seen these already, but there are still a few of us around who don't swing that way.












And the other news around here is that we got a piano! Our friends Alain and Carolyn decided they would rather have the space in their living room that the piano was occupying than the piano itself, as Carolyn has taken up the harp instead, and so they GAVE it to us! It was fairly expensive to move, and now the living room isn't going to look right until we get all new furniture, but so what? We have a piano! Alison's planning on taking some lessons, and I've got some Chopin and some Scott Joplin I'm going to learn. Plus, it's really fun to just noodle around on. (Our poor landlords downstairs...) Expect some new songs out of here this winter.


Oh yeah, and one more thing: I don't want to alarm anyone, but there's already egg nog available at the Superstore. That's at least two weeks earlier than last year, which was already bloggably premature. Season's greetings!

Neat Stuff

Wulp, I finished the new Jonathan Franzen novel, and it's a doozy. Another long one, another dysfunctional family, more multiple points of view, and more hilarity and heartbreak. Maybe less intense hilarity than in The Corrections, but the characters are every bit as rich, if not a little more realistic. Plus, it has the funniest description of human poop since Chaucer.

So now I'm on to Anne of Green Gables. As expected, it's charming. Less expected was how funny it is. And just plain well written. There's this recurring phenomenon in my reading life where I finally get around to reading a book that's such a classic I feel like I already know all about it and expect the experience to be dry and tedious, only to be slapped in the face by the strength of the writing that of course is what made the book a classic in the first place. It feels good to finally put aside all the pigtailed dolls and Japanese tourists and even sweet little Megan Follows, and just hear the story in its original, fresh voice.

There've been some other nice cultural discoveries recently, too. The other day some CDs I ordered from Aquarius Records came in the mail, the most interesting of which by far was not even a CD. Rather, it's a CD jewel case entitled 1-Bit Symphony, and holding some really primitive electronics which end in an eighth-inch stereo jack. When you plug headphones into it and turn it on, you get to hear a piece of music that's about 40 minutes long, in five movements. Actually, the last movement is technically infinite in length, as its final chord continues indefinitely, until you turn off the machine.

The whole thing is programmed by someone named Tristan Perich in 1-bit technology, which seems to mean there's pretty much no variation in timbre or volume possible. Imagine really complex music being played using the sounds of telephone buttons or like the alarm sound on a dot-matrix printer or something. In fact, you don't have to imagine, because I've taken the liberty of recording the first track for you. It's more exciting through headphones coming out of the jewel case, but I hope you'll enjoy it anyway.



And finally, everyone needs to check out a couple of films I caught during the Atlantic Film Festival last week. Another Day is Mike Leigh's newest, and it's just as great as all his movies have been since Naked in 1993. It's lighter than some of those, but there's still plenty of troubled characters and conflict. Lesley Manville is particularly adorable and tragic.

The other one is called The Myth of the American Sleepover. I don't really know anything about it, but it was a very sweet, naturalistic portrayal of teenage life and love, something like Dazed and Confused without the overwrought philosophical dialogue. Sounds simple enough, and it is, but it managed to sneak its way into the hearts of everyone in the theatre, with seemingly no trickery whatsoever. I was there with Alison and Johanna, and we all came out feeling positive and loving everyone and wanting to stay up all night.

Which is what I seem to be doing now. Better hit the hay. Next time, Alison has some photos of the rocks and waves at Prospect to show you. G'night.

Tweet! Tweet!

It feels like I've been shirking my duties here. I haven't really been keeping people very up to date about what's goes on in our daily lives over here, which is ostensibly the purpose of this blog. Although, face it, if I didn't enjoy the occasional opinionated rant so much, I'd probably just get on Twitter and chirp into the void every few minutes.

Well, luckily, I've been doing this writing exercise for 32 days now where every morning I spend a few minutes writing down ten images from the day before. Anything that forces its way into my recall is fine, as long as it's vivid. So now you can enjoy some random subjective details from a month in my life all in one sitting, with no annoying alert sounds or windows popping up every few minutes.

8/18 Someone's job is to dance in a chicken costume outside the Oasis bar.

8/19 Tough looking dog lying on the sidewalk — I whispered, "Hey, cutie," before I realized there was a woman sitting on the steps beside it.

8/20 The woman's face as she pulled into the empty parking space and suddenly saw that I was standing in it

8/21 Buster ran up and down the stairs, meowing constantly when we got home.

8/22 The legless guy in a wheelchair collecting cans

8/23 Alison so mad to find the Sears Christmas Wish Book in the mail

8/24 I saw a guy I don't know very well in HMV, and he saw me, and we both pretended not to notice each other.

8/25 Indian woman sitting alone behind the counter in the dark corner store, her head covered and face expressionless

8/26 Two crows flying low together across the street

8/27 Meg and Glen sitting behind their computer monitors, facing me but not noticing I was there

8/28 Buster walked out of the kitchen and threw up.

8/29 The jade colour of the breaking waves at Clam Harbour

8/30 Two young kids were running the corner store, one telling the other what to punch in on the register.

8/31 The ribs of an old lady in a bikini trying to climb out of the water through the rocks and undertow

9/01 Alison's, Krista's, and Jesse's heads bobbing on the surface of the lake

9/02 The crossing guard looked happy to be back.

9/03 The waves at Lawrencetown were so high, but you could always just see the tops of bigger ones behind them.

9/04 About 25 small birds flying past the car as we went over the bridge

9/05 Tiny wedding party on a tiny yard in Prospect, watching our car

9/06 View from the outhouse with no roof

9/07 CBC News billboards ripped up by the storm

9/08 Crossword puzzle and Destroyer with our dinner

9/09 The mailbox spider and her web are gone.

9/10 Smashed up car in the intersection had its airbag inflated.

9/11 Chucky the squirrel was yelling at our next door neighbour because she hadn't given him any peanuts.

9/12 Guy across the street peering out his bathroom window at me

9/13 My closet looked bare after I gave a couple of shirts away to charity.

9/14 The school playground full of talking kids in the morning

9/15 The rain splatted on the leaves before it turned into a torrent.

9/16 The mailbox spider, back with a new web under the streetlight.

9/17 Girl at the rock show had a tattoo across her entire back that looked like the random doodling you do when you're talking on the phone.

9/18 A parade of nothing but Shriners stopped all traffic in the downtown core.

9/19 A high-hit ball came straight to me in right field.

And now you're all caught up!