you must be loving your life in the rain

One of my favourite things about listening to music is that it has this amazing ability to take you somewhere else. No matter how brief the time is, it’s hard to argue that there isn’t something really magical about piece of music only 3-5 minutes long that can captivate you.

The Interweb is abuzz today with the leak of The National’s High Violet. They have been one of my favourite bands since I first discovered them back in 2007 with their release of Boxer. Since then I’ve had the pleasure of seeing them in concert, and devoured their back catalogue so extensively that my mp3 player no longer counts how many times I hit repeat. I can guarantee this album will be on many a year-end list.

However, the thing that struck me most throughout my steady listening of the album today was back to the summer of 2007 and where I was when I first heard their music. Not so much physically, but where I was in life...You could drive a car through my head in five minutes from one side of it to the other…and how much has changed. Three years is not that long, but I feel like I have lived so many different lives in-between. Sure have had enough different postal addresses to make ones head spin. I know I’m a much different person, too. Or as my friend Todd says, “You’re the same, just more vocal.”

It’s comforting to know as you grow, your favourite artists do as well and that the more you listen, the more new associations will be formed. So the twinge of nostalgia becomes less and less but still when you want to ride the wave, it’s there too.

7 random pictures that made me smile today {part v}

playin’ make-up, wearin’ guitar

This is my 1000th post.

Fancy that, eh?

Some of you have been reading my ramblings for over 5 years. You should pat yourself on the back for sticking around so long.  I’ve been here, on WordPress, under the “Flying Buttresses” for almost 3 years. 1000th posts seems like a lot in that amount of time, but as you know, I’m not always the wordiest of the bloggers out there.

I was mulling over what to post for this particular entry, and it came to me while driving in the rain.

I was listening to The Replacements really loud, and I felt the bassline shake through my armrest and as usual when listening to anything Westerberg my mind went somewhere else. He is the great jumping off point for me.

I believe that music finds you at the time in which you’re ready to hear it.

It used to boggle some of my friends minds that I had never listened to Bowie until a few years ago. Even though I sometimes slip into that kind of music snobbery to others, I try to stop myself, remembering if I had not had the helpful guidance of such music minded friends my music listening evolution might have taken a very different route.

However, even though I do believe music finds you when you’re ready for it, what I started to ponder on my car ride into the city today was this…

Top 5 albums you think should be placed in the hands of every 13 yr old.

I pick that age, as it was right around the time I was really getting into music, actually I bit younger even. I had begged my parents to let me have their stereo in my room and even though my town had horrible radio stations, with clever maneuvering of the antenna we would get the feed from across the river and I could pick up the signals from Detroit and tune into the alternative radio station there 89 X.  If I think back, this might be what started my insomnia. I used to stay up until all hours listening to the radio and making tapes. Hardly any of the music I had heard of, but I knew what I liked and would write the names of the artists (when I could catch them) onto my binder and then ask my friends who had older siblings if they knew anything about them.

Oh if only the Interweb had existed then. But I guess the hunt wouldn’t have been as exciting.

So dear reader…what 5 albums helped shape your musical listening?

Sub question: What were you listening to at 13?

p.s. In all my postings here you’ve left over 7,000 comments so I must thank-you. The comment section is really the heart of the blog. Thanks for entertaining me so.

sinus infection + migraine

if you need me i will be in the bat cave that is my living room, hiding from light.

please send golden oreos if you could.

thanks.

the little things

i dream of a world where stephen fry audiobooks do not exist.

specifically the harry potter series.

either jk rowling needs to pen more novels, or i’m going to go out of my mind soon.

every single day my boss listens to them.

every.single. day.

i can’t listen to music because then she can’t concentrate and we don’t have doors on our offices. i can’t wear headphones, as then i can’t hear my surroundings and wouldn’t be able to get the door or the phone. bah.

what sound or noise do you hate?

walkabout

In a little while I’m going on a “walkabout” with my Operations Committee and the municipality, and we are touring all of the buildings we own in the city. The purpose is to see what repairs, etc need to be done and to make sure everything is in order.

Every single time someone says “walkabout” to me or I have to say it myself I think of Lost and John Locke and I expect someone to come bursting into the room with a suitcase of knives ready to go off on an adventure.  At least I’ll have something to amuse myself with during the 4 hour meeting this morning. I don’t think if I make a joke it will be appreciated. I shall resist the temptation…

How to do amuse yourself in boring meetings?

7 random pictures that made me smile today {part iv}

tumbling down

Wolf Parade kicked off their spring/summer tour last week on the East coast, and here is a live video from their show in Toronto where they debuted a new song “Fast Ballad”, which will be on their upcoming record Expo 86.

I cannot wait to see them in July. Finally.

scrambled

Oh, the mysteries that land on my desk.

Just took these shots on my phone, as I haven’t accepted it into the collection still trying to figure out exactly what it is and how it works. The label says one thing (Magic Egg Brush), but the spring at the top makes me think there is more to this gadget.

Any ideas?

Off to search through more catalogues…

Nevermind, mystery solved. Thank goodness for legible labels, I was able to read the patent number and search from there. Huzzah!

when you open your mind to the impossible, sometimes you find the truth

When Fringe debuted last year I caught snippets but never really kept track properly of what was going on. I caught it when I was home, but never made the effort to watch online. However I’d had a renewed interest these past few weeks and I’m in the process of (re)watching back episodes.

Have you watched it?

Of course now I am completely hooked, mainly because of one character – Dr. Walter Bishop played by John Noble. He’s character is so eccentric yet so lovable, even when he does very questionable things, which he does quite frequently. He is becoming my favourite television doctor, which is why I thought this clip I found on YouTube was funny; House vs. Bishop.

Another show I’m also re-watching is The Thick of It. Ah, the Brits do comedy the best. Anything good on your telly lately?