Meth rabbits hopped up on sausages May 23, 2007

Alright so I have the job of being an office troll this summer down in the depths of the university where I don’t see the sunlight for days. This is why I have been so obviously silent on the blogfront. The simple root of the problem is that I work isolated in a little office with no coworkers and rarely any neighbours. The most excitement down here is when the door to the dean’s office opens and loud men in business suits walk out talking boisterously on their cell phones. The only human contact I have on a daily basis is with the woman who serves my coffee in the morning and the soci secretary who is here for half days. If I’m lucky, in the afternoon the girl whose office is next to me comes in and slams her door a couple of times, talks on her cell phone, and leaves in an hour. She has never said a word to me but I’m lonely enough to strike up a conversation about the weather (the weather, which constantly fascinates me as a topic for small talk because it’s always available but constantly annoying). By the end of the day, I feel as though I have lost the ability to communicate or even act in a social way, bleck, so how could I inflict that on blog readers? Well, I will anyway.

I’ve set the computer radio station to CBC Radio 3 and refuse to take more paid time to search for a station that is completely hip hop free – I swear that is the only problem with Canadian independent music, thank you Rascalz. And go figure, when I finally break down and get a membership so I can make my own playlist full of the Weakerthans and Malajube, they only play songs that would make anyone’s left eye twitch.

 A huge part of my job is to find information. Basically, I’m like a highly modified search engine that comes with bonus printing, stapling, and label making skills. I’ve been gleaning UK and Swedish websites for all information about their disability policies but I’ve noticed that when you’re surfing the internet with an academic purpose, even the most mundane things will obliterate your concentration. In my free time, I’ve gotten to the point where I can limit myself to watching a few elite youtube videos and skim over all the prolefeed. But here at work, well I’ll watch anything. I watched a video that was a guy standing with a black background doing sign language that explained an employment policy. No sound, just sign language, obviously good for someone who can understand it but I think I was just having a google burnout moment. If I had coworkers, my job would make me feel like someone inJPOD.

Anyways, I was thinking that I’m pretty good at what I do and with all the content on the internet, there must be people who get paid real money to do what I’m doing… You know, it’s probably the main job of librarians now that everything has become digitized, what do you think?

What else? I don’t want to digress into my weekly tai chi lessons at the community centre that are open to anyone and, aside from my boyfriend, most of the class is compiled of retirement aged individuals in blindingly white, new workout runners. Why you even need shoes when you’re going that slow is a question I ponder all class, it helps to clear my mind and make room for westernized zen. It’s quite enjoyable.

 I’ve been house sitting for the last three weeks. Getting up in the morning and coming home after work only to tend to the bowel movements of a senior citizen dog who seriously, honestly weezes. He also only eats his kibble if it has milk on it, like a bowl of cereal.

I can do a simplified version of this… very simplified:

Just so everyone knows March 21, 2007

Last week was so not hunky dory because we got out of class early and I was like “YES! Survivor special whoot” but it wasn’t on. Survivor wasn’t on at all last week. And it might be on tonight but jeez am I ticked.
Interesting that you get Bowie popping up if you google image search “hunky dory”

Fricken busy March 11, 2007

Arrgh! I hate it, I think of all these awesome blog topics and then I have no time to write because I have to do other homework. Though I’m getting excited about my reality TV paper and our group project, the subject just fascinates me but I guess you’ll hafta wait till the presentation to see why.

Oh well. Alright, so I really enjoyed the last class, even though the thought of subjecting a my music to the vulnerability of judgment from an audience freaked the crap out of me. From Paul’s warning e-mail it sounded like people were going to be allowed to really rip the music apart, or maybe I just contrived that in my little emo brain, but in reality it was quite civil. And many of the students really do listen to music that is ‘art’. Even if I didn’t like a certain song (i.e. country jams), after the person explained why they liked it I could still see that there was a genuine-ness and inner truth to many of the songs.
For the record, I was going to play “Jackie, Dressed in Cobras” by the New Pornographers because I’ve been playing their CD Twin Cinema for weeks in my car… Um, they’re happy…so that’s a step for me. But I also like them because they sound like Boney M meets the 2000s. And if that’s not good enough for you, their song “Use It” is The Hour’s theme song.

In other news, I too am starting to match faces in the class with the blogs that I read. However, I’m finding it quite difficult to bridge the gap between blogality and reality and actually talk to these people face to face. I mean, what do you really say? Therefore, I propose that for our last class we should all get nametags that we write our blog names on and then we can mix and mingle and know who we’ve been talking to all semester. Now, I know this sounds dorky (heeey, we could bring food too, nothing goes better with mingling than snacks!) but think of all the background knowledge and interaction you have with these people that you may never have spoken to in ‘real’ life. I mean, I have friends whom I talk to on a daily basis and I read their blogs; when I see them we can usually pick up a conversation right where the blog left off. One friend posted about being ill all weekend so when I saw her in the office on monday I didn’t waste time asking, ‘how was your weekend?’, instead I was able to go straight to, “Are you feeling better?” I think this added background knowledge that we are all putting into cyberspace about ourselves is an advantage in the realm of communication. It’s something pretty new and unique and I think people could use it to connect with each other.

Yup, that’s my rambling. Stay tuned….
YES, I have realized that people read shorter blog posts. So am I done posting? HECK NO. But I’ll just post the next topic in a short, concise and appealing post after this. heh, I’m so sneaky…

I’m too sexy for my sneakers March 3, 2007

Alright, so I’ll admit it, the reason I hesitate to talk about music anywhere is that I don’t believe I could ever really keep track of the music scene very well. I guess, like in the Itzkoff reading, I could use a filter like the website he talks about, and it would far surpass my other outlets of Lethbridge Radio *shudder*, word of mouth and random CD purchases (this only happened when I had a steady income and not a lot to spend it on, I would head into the ‘punk’ section of HMV, which indeed is compiled of punk, indie, emo, screamo, etc, and pick an artist based on cover art, label, and song titles – bad idea). However, I have never really been happy to have someone else give advice on what sort of music I should like (such as a 10 point rating system), therefore I have just sort of bumped into the music I like. And let’s be honest here, I went through an emo stage (and would be excited about the Taking Back Sunday concert in Calgary but it’s on a wednesday) and I’m emerging out of it into … uh, who knows? Indie something or other.

So, as a result of my music ignorance, I have decided to write about lived experience. Although the theatre was a good venue, I really would have liked to do our observational assignment on a live music show. I really can’t help it, every small show I go to automatically turns me into a people watcher and I really can’t shut it off.
I headed out to the Darby and Joan Club show at the Slice last night, not because of Paul’s subliminal messages but because my mom shares an office with the guitarist and for the last two weeks she has gone on, “It would be so nice if you could go and support him” you know, the way mothers do. Plus, she gave me a band pin and I don’t accessorize with band names that I have never seen or heard. So, for fashion’s sake, I went.
My boyfriend and I arrived at about 9:45 since, from my days of frequenting the Tongue n’ Groove, everyone knows shows never start on time. There weren’t a lot of tables free but we found one, sat down, and ordered some drinks. I guess the other reason why I people watch at shows is because once the music starts it’s pretty difficult to talk to the person next to you. As the night went on, the place became packed out with quite a few familiar faces from school, and a variety of other people ranging from 18-50 years old.
Now, I have become convinced that shows are not about music, they’re about clothes. There were only two guys last night that had the management student look going (i.e. collared shirt, gap jeans, maybe a jacket with a furry hood), the rest were decked out in tight (and some VERY tight) jeans, neutral coloured t-shirts, and interesting blazers/jackets. Black rimmed glasses flooded the bar. Two guys wore those hats that old men wear to golf in.

Since the 50s are coming back in the indie scene (I think, you know, I don’t have anything explicitly telling me these things), the women wore tops with flowers or patterns and big necklaces. Except one woman, who was as out of place as the management students and wore high-heeled hooker boots with a plain black jacket and perfectly done blonde hair. Quite a contrast to the girl with a mohawk.
And myself? I sat there in my thrift store shirt (I get points for that), hoodie purchased from independent vendors who had been selling at the school (more points), and an emo-ish leather bracelet (neutral points), though I lose points for my skater shoes and blend-in appearance.

I guess the whole fashion scene is what makes me feel somewhat uncomfortable at shows. I mean, these punkie, indie whatever kids really make a point of being unfashionably fashionable, of being awkwardly cool, I don’t know. But at the same time I enjoy that people have more guts than I do to wear whatever they want and look good in it.
So Paul opened for the band and kudos to him for doing the acoustic thing because I think people have been afraid of singing without a back-up band since Dashboard Confessional made their debut. The song about Dar rocked my world. Then the band played and the ironic thing was that the people in the band very low-key on the fashion scene. They were great by the way; I can’t believe they were selling CDs for only five bucks.

Anyways, for fear of rambling, I want to assert that while live music is great and local shows are sometimes better than big concerts (especially at the Enmax where people sit around bored and get stupid-drunk), it is almost impossible to enter a small venue and not notice the fashion aspect. I guess maybe music and clothing go hand in hand because they are both so closely linked to identity (and, in the mainstream, to selling that identity). And with that deep thought, I’ll leave you with a link to an “Indie Fashion” online retailer, which just screams “sell out”.