Refraction

One of those songs I actually picked up from the radio (who listens to the radio anymore??) For best effect, watch this video. ¹It made me cry. ²And I haven’t even seen the movie.
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I love mink so much; it’s a pity she’s seemed to drop out of the music world altogether. Her favourite song of mine is “One Suitcase”, but since I only had her Shalom album handy, I’ve been listening to “世界で一番奇麗な場所” ¹“The World’s Most Beautiful Place”

I was really struck by these (pre-)chorus passages: ²And I was struck by them 4 years ago, too! Look!

たとえば今から後100日しか生きられないとしたら?
僕は、何をするだろう?何を見るだろう?
何を聞くだろう?何を語るだろう?
For example, what if I only had a hundred days to live?
What would I do? What would I see?
What would I hear? What would I say?

たとえば今から後100日しか生きられないとしたら?
僕は、誰に会うだろう?誰に触れるだろう?
誰を愛すだろう?誰を許すだろう?
For example, what if I only had a hundred days to live?
Who would I see? Who would I touch?
Who would I love? Who would I forgive?

(Although I can tell you, if I had a hundred days to live, I would travel for a month – maybe even two. I would wind my way across the world and live out there. I would hope to see people, hear them, touch them, speak to them. Then I’d come home and do the same thing with my friends and family.) ³I might also go skydiving.

I also have some thoughts churning about forgiveness, but I’ll save those for another time.

It’s important to get perspective on things from time to time as I get deeper and deeper into the murky waters of my thesis. (And trust me, they are murky. I do more experiments to clarify things: and then I find more reactivity I have to explain! -sigh- I’m starting to think of it as thesis fodder.)

Doctor, unbandage my eyes
I feel the light and I’m ready to be out in it
Doctor, uncover my ears
I hear the chorus weeping, I see the people singing

Hey Rosetta, “Yer Spring”

This is a fantastic song from a wonderful Canadian band. ¹Full disclosure: I may have a tiny little crush on the lead singer I saw them in concert a while ago for the second time and was completely blown away; it didn’t matter that I’d gone by myself, as soon as they took the stage all my attention was fixed on the band.

Part of the reason why I love HR! so much is that they always seem to be having fun on stage while putting on a great show. I’ve been to some bigger shows which had more spectacle, but where the band members (or maybe just the vocalist) seemed to be dialling it in—as a fan, that’s not a pleasant feeling at all.

Verdict: For fans of indie rock layered with strings, as well as fans of the Rock. ²Newfoundland

There’s one thing I have to say so I’ll be brave
You were what I wanted
I gave what I gave
I’m not sorry I met you
I’m not sorry it’s over
I’m not sorry there’s nothing to save
I’m not sorry there’s nothing to save

Watching the Stars secret show in Toronto… I’m very convinced this band has a hold on my heart for a very long time. Drama? Check. Boy/girl vocals? Check. Songs of love won and lost? Check.

And to think, I never would have gotten into them if I hadn’t randomly followed up on a concert poster I saw a few years ago on my way to work. Funny how that works.

It blows my mind that @riefuofficial follows @viennateng! Unbelievable!

(And I only knew this because I follow @loveyanen!)

Phoenix makes me pretty happy. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix sounds like a happy album, but reveals itself to be a little more somber underneath (just look at the lyrics). That doesn’t stop me from adoring this album to bits. I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of them before last fall.

“so sentimental, not sentimental, no…”

Also terribly excited to be seeing them live in September! My entertainment budget has shifted to concerts from travel, clearly.

Okay, so in France everyone seems to use deezer.comto listen to music on their computers (it’s a free streaming radio, you can find a ton of stuff on there).

So I have “Bad Romance” stuck in my head, strangely enough, and do a search for it…. the second result is a remix of The Last Unicorn‘s theme song by an artist called “Bad Romance.”

I guess you really can remix everything.

I still manage to procrastinate by translating things. Who would have guessed. Anyway, the story behind this song? it’s off Mes Aïeux’s old album En Famille, which also features the brilliant song “Dégénerations.” This one’s a bit sweeter, though.
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Taking a break from the horror that is the undergrad thesis. I present, in no particular order, thoughts which have been percolating in my brain lately:

• I’m growing increasingly dissatisfied with the local rag. At first, there was this sensationalist reporter whose articles I read with a general kind of distaste. Then, the sports pages (this is how I follow sports) caught the same bug; one writer consistently abuses the cadences and vocabulary of a casual register. OK, I’m being a bit judgmental here. And maybe it’s my objective scientist training coming to the fore. But is it so much to ask for a little professionalism? Not every piece needs to have your personality written all over it. If I wanted that, I’d read a column.
• In the same vein: I’d like to take a second job as a copy editor for said paper. Then I too can make money while doing nothing. (I’m not sure people will ever spell Sarah McLachlan’s surname correctly. I recently read an article where it was spelled two different ways. Incorrectly, both times.)
• The cherries are blooming, finally. I’m glad the weather is nice and they can last for at least a day or two–but I’m already seeing petals on the ground.
• I’ve been looking at more indie music lately. I kind of–I’m not sure how I feel about it. Looking for indie music seems like an oxymoron; if a musician is truly indie you’ll never have heard of them. If you haven’t heard of them… you can’t look for them. Simple as that. Surprisingly, I’ve discovered that Dallas Green does manage to pull off his City and Colour act quite well, and I do rather like Sometimes. Bring Me Your Love is a little vanilla, even for my tastes. Other groups which have caught my fancy lately: Stars, Hallelujah the Hills, Broken Social Scene.
• I have my last undergraduate lectures tomorrow. Strange. I don’t really have a sense of things ending, like I did in high school. Perhaps that’s just the stress of the thesis talking.

I love Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” for many, many reasons. And I’ve listened to many, many versions–as a matter of fact, I don’t think I’ve ever heard Cohen’s version of his own song. One of those cases where a cover outstrips the original version, I suppose.

Maybe that’s why I enjoyed this BBC quiz so much. 🙂 For the record, I got 7–missed the spoken word one. It was kind of terrible, after all.

love is not a victory march
it’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah