Coldplay - Day 2
Today's track:
Coldplay - Swallowed In the SeaToday's review: A Message
"My song is love..." croons Chris Martin, in what could be the most bored voice working today. He sounds like he might drift right into a dream state. Gone is the frantic vibe of
Yellow or the soaring of
Clocks. For this song we get Chris Martin, somnambulist. Over a very familiar chord progressiom Jon Buckland shows that he has still only one guitar solo in him, playing those same three notes for all their worth. A piano makes an appearance but is indistinguishable from the rest of the soundscape. "My song is love, is love alone/And I've got to get that message home," Martin sings at the end. Is it Chris? Or is the message "I've run out of ideas?"
ANGRY GUY SAYS: 4/10
(Edit: Download links don't seem to be working...stay tuned. Edit of the edit: Download link works again - take that RIAA!)
Coldplaying across the universe
Coldplay - A Message (from the forthcoming X&Y)A track by track review to follow...
(Edit: Above download link now works.)
New Coldplay...
It's leaked. Go get it, ya scurvy dogs! (pssss....you might try
here.)
Dude....
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant of The Office fame have
their own radio show.Check out some
on air video..
About a week ago I received an e-mail that read, in part:
"Duuuuude! I didn't know u were in law school! Aren't you like 18? wtf? OMG!"
To which I responded: Mom, you knew I was in law school.
Seriously, whoever sent that was apparently looking for
this guy.Remember grade eight? I do. And it was a lot like
this, which is embarassing as hell.
Apparently Viagra might make you go
blind.
Up up down left A A B - acquit! Acquit!
Feeling like there's nothing in the gaming world for aspiring attorneys? Apparently so was Nintendo - presenting
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, where you play the titular character. The game doesn't come out until the fall and its only for the Nintendo DS; buddy over at
Kotaku claims it doesn't suck but is actually "hilarious fun." Just like the first year of law school.
I wonder if I can get my hair like that.
Still no word about moot teams. Which is one of those silence speaks louder than words situations.
Peeing on the fire
While getting a job and cleaning the old apartment are still ongoing summer projects, I’ve also decided it’s high time that I examine the ins and outs of the way I think. Most people probably aren’t overly worried about why they think what they do, but a year of law school has me questioning how the ol’ noggin does its thing.
Generally May is the month when I do the most head-up-ass introspection, and a cursory glance at the month of May in my writing books revealed a depressing amount of pop psychology and whining and terrible poetry. For my entire life there has always been a gap in May between what I did during the school year and what I did during summer, and the lack of activity always puts me in the Let’s-think-about-Thomas frame of mind.
Firstly, I’ve been looking at opinions I have, starting with popular culture—don’t want to tax myself—but moving onto politics and religion. Why do I like certain things and dislike others? Are my political and religious (or anti-religious) views based entirely on what tickles my fancy? How rational are my decisions?
Currently I’m reading
Irrationality by Stuart Sutherland. I’m only 20 pages in and I’ve already identified three situations where I act irrationally. By the end of the novel I’ll probably find that nothing I think is based on rational thought, that my entire worldview is a house of cards waiting for someone to blow it down.
In terms of religion I plan on reading Leviticus; that seems to be the source of most of the church’s more offensive claims. I want to understand why millions of people would elect a president because they think gay marriage is the anti-christ’s masterplan.
Other books I plan on reading are Edward de Bono’s
Water Logic, Italo Calvino’s
If on a winter’s night a traveler, and John Mighton’s
The Myth of Ability.
A member of wkw.net has put together a very cool trailer, and on the strength of that effort has secured funding after his trip to Cannes. Check out the excellence
here. Dig the Cat from Red Dwarf as an assassin!
Beck, Like the Beer
Bit torrent of
Beck's 1992, four-track demo.
Google?
Someone found this blog by searching for
persuasive slushee.
Persuasive slushee?
GET OUT AND VOTE!!!
Let's drive these assholes back to the Catskills...whoever you happen to think the assholes are...
Remember the dancing Citroen? Some people have gone at it
old school.
Photographer David Lachapelle has made a movie about that broken leg dancing called...er....krumped? Krunked? Broken legged? Whatever - it's
Rize. (thanks
Screenhead for the links.)
The Arcade Fire appeared on Later...with Jools Holland in the UK - grab a bit torrent of their two song video
here. (Requires membership. Thanks to
largeheartedboy. Hey Ryan - GET
BIT TORRENT.
Stereogum is posting songs from the new Paul Anka CD, Rock Swings. It features swing covers of Jump, Smells Like Teen Spirit, and Wonderwall. I know that Frank Bennett did a Wonderwall swing cover back in the day, but Anka's are actually good. If you missed the Black Hole Sun post grab it here - it's the cat's pyjamas!
Paul Anka - Black Hole Sun
Think you know how the BC vote is going to turn out? Take on
The Tyee's chief prognosticator
Will McMartin and guess the number of seats each party will take. The fifty closest guesses will win a book.
You can't spell fornication without friction
Whenever the actions of our neighbours to the south seem totally inexplicable, just remember this little factoid: seven states, including Florida, still prohibit cohabitation. It is illegal for a man and woman to live together without being married; break this law and you could face up to 60 days in prison.
Now you might think, Sure this is still a law, but no law enforcement officer would ever charge someone with it. And you would be wrong.
In North Carolina a 40 year-old police dispatcher has been told by her sheriff that she must either move home, get married, or quit her job, after he found out that she was living with her boyfriend.
"This is sort of like a double barrel," he told Star-News Wilmington. "It is a violation of general statute, and it goes against something that I believe - it is a moral issue ... Personally and morally, I think it's best to be married if you're going to be living together."
There are sounds and then there is the music
Ben Gibbard - Photobooth (Live)I have a lot of conversations where people seem to be concerned about my mental health. Note to everyone: I'm fine. Really. Sure, I have those moments where it seems like the only way to fix the world is to blow the fucking thing up...like we all do sometimes. And other times I like to butter up my belly and dance around the room singing a song I made up, with a rose stuck up my butt. You know, the business end?
Like we all do sometimes.
Provincial Election May 17th - Do you know who you're voting for?
And now, a moment of zen:
100% &^$!!^#$#
Grades will be posted in 22 minutes and I've never felt worse about exam results in my life. Cold sweats. Hands all shaky. Right now I'm expecting the worst and hoping for the slightly below average, but nothing would surprise me.
And now it's official. I suck.
Sad Song Blue
In 2002, Ben Gibbard played a series of solo sets, showcasing what would become
Death Cab for Cuties most popular album to date, Transatlanticism. He also mixed it up with some creatively chosen covers. Click on Ben to download
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.
Each day I'll post another song from the set.
And now, your moment of Zen:
You claim to be a faithful and practicing Catholic, as am I. You have been wonderful about calling the church to account, particularly Cardinal Law, on the issue of priest homosexual molestation. You also show great concern for children. These are all commendable things.
However, you cannot claim to be a faithful Catholic and yet give a pass to homosexuals on matters like adoption or say that what they do in the privacy of their bedrooms is their own business. It is everyone’s business, because it is immoral behavior and it affects the fabric of society in a most negative way. This is not only a matter of Biblical semantics: It is what the Church has taught for 2,000 years. You either accept Catholic Church teaching or you don’t. If you don’t, then please don’t call yourself a Catholic.
The point is that homosexuality is wrong, period, in all situations and circumstances. Homosexuality destroys the family and eventually destroys societies. Just because God hasn’t rained down His wrath yet on cities like San Francisco doesn’t mean that He isn’t going to. It will happen in His time, not ours, if our country doesn’t change its ways.- a letter from Allyson Smith to Bill O'Reilly following an interview of a "reformed" homosexual
Good. Gravy. Brought to you by the mind-blowing
Concerned Women for America.
Protect ya neck
Well, I missed out on the Zissou hat giveaway but still snagged the Criterion
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - will probably end up buying a red toque anyway, since in the movie they all wear their own version.
I still have this
and I might want this
Firefox you sly dog
Firefox ads.
Especially if he's drunk
Get a bunch of your friends together, ring O. J. Simpson’s doorbell, and tell him that you are “the real killers” and that you are surrendering to him so that he can finally stop searching for you. Get his reaction on videotape and sell it over the Internet.Other hoaxes you can try.
Tell you I chill
Rap is 500 years old. Ye werd.
Surely someone said something
It sounded like a bad joke. Anjelica Huston directing Rosie O'Donnell as the mentally disabled sister of Andie MacDowell. To bastardize Voltaire, if
Riding the Bus with My Sister didn't exist, we'd have to create it. The movie teaches the important lesson that people with mental disabilities are oracular mirrors which reflect not only our future selves, but society as a whole. They have magic powers and if you catch one she has to take you to her pot of gold!
Granted, I've never read the book, so maybe it treats the whole "Things I learned from someone who on the surface doesn't seem nearly as smart as me, but in reality knows more because of her simple nature" a lot better than Hallmark. Or maybe the author gravy-trained her sister like Oprah on speed. Either way, from all accounts the movie was an abortion.
Luckily for us, we don't have to watch it to enjoy it's craptacular magnificence, TVgasm live-blogged the
entire movie. Better yet, it culled the
greatest moments from the movie so we could watch.
My uncle's not a monkey
As debate rages in Kansas over how to
teach evolution, I'm reminded of an article I saw in Maisonneuve about
Christian science fair projects.
Unfortunately that article is not available online. Suffice it to say it was heavy on the Leviticus.
I recently had an argument with someone over whether open-minded Christians are in fact Christians. Obviously people can call themselves whatever they want. If someone wants to believe in dog-headed gods and call himself a Egyptoligan he is perfectly free to do so. But from what I know about Christianity and based on my own experiences, I have to stick with my assertion: the term Christian necessarily refers to a closed-minded individual. I don't mean that the person is bad or judgmental, although he may be both those things. I simply mean that on several vitally important issues, his mind is completely made up. If that were not the case, and he was still a Christian, then the term would have no useful meaning.
I remember a youth pastor refering to things he had read on bumper stickers. One of them was "A mind is like a parachute. It only works when it's open." He went on to say that while this was true, the parachute must
close at least a little, or it wouldn't trap any air. I remember this same pastor once spent an entire hour debunking theories held by other religions about what happened to Jesus after the crucifixion. I doubt anyone in the audience had even once questioned this part of the Bible until he brought it up. For my part I found some of those other religions mighty persuasive.
One of my favourite aspects of Christianity is how it went from a religion of martyrs to oppressors and now seems to want to shift back over to martyrs again. Not a Sunday went by in the Church without some mention being given to the Christians around the world who were suffering under intolerant governments, and this without any apparent irony. Apparently there is no connection between a country suppressing Christianity and Christians suppressing pretty much everything.
That looks like a man's....
Guess the Google.
Memories....
Flipping through my journal/scratch pad I came across this description of the orientation meeting I went to over a year ago for law school:
The people leading the small group workshop don't know what they're doing. I don't think they planned what they were going to say, and what they are saying is repetitive and unconvincing. They go on and on about how things are different at UBC, or about how something is especially the case at UBC, and the obvious question is how do they know? Have they been to several other law schools? Their enthusiasm for the place is suspicious and tiring. I guess their lack of notes is meant to make them seem casual; they seem simply unprepared.
I doubt it
Watch Bright Eyes aka Conor Oberst perform
When the President Talks to God on Leno. (thanks largeheartedboy)
At a Pokemon tournament (that's right, Pokemon tournament) over half of the contestants were over the age of 18. The winner? 20-year old Chris Darling - a history major at Florida University. Hmmm. A 20-year old, Pokemon champion named Darling. I bet he just kills with the ladies.
"My heart was beating so hard when I was battling," Darling said. "I expected myself to lose three times." Yet a last-second twist of fate and a move admittedly made in "desperation" helped Darling seal the victory.The words shooting fish in a barrel come to mind.
By far the strangest, most disturbing ad for a Slushee EVER.
A pretty sweet comic about the joys of heroine addiction, circa 1966.
Hooked (thanks Screenhead)
and the greatest of these is sloth
Almost two weeks of doing nothing has shown me that I would make a very nice heir. If some rich person wants to die and leave me their money (Bill Gates I'm looking at you) then that would be fine with me. I could do it. Sure, initially it would be difficult, what with the hangers on and sunny day friends, but in the end I'm sure I'd be more than up for the challenge.
A veritable treasure trove of videos.
