Alright enough is enough. I sit down for two solid hours on a quest to find some new music and I come up with two blog posts in one night? Really?! There must be something wrong with me.
I came across an amazing video of an 8-minute jam session with two of my all-time favourites, Bon Iver and The Roots from The Late Show with Jimmy Fallon a few weeks back. This is such a sexy song to put on, perfect for Valentine's Day (and far too sick not to post for that matter). There are some major creative juices flowing here and amazing talents at play. Watch and see! I'm totally gushing.
A beautiful sound caught me dead in my tracks Sunday night as I flipped back and forth from the 54th Annual Grammy Award's. I watched intently, enveloped in the music. Who was it that I was listening to? Jack White popped into my mind with the scraggly hair and thin mustache coming from the screen; but this sound was definitely no Jack White. Much better in fact. The beautiful harmonies coming from their voices. The sound, the feeling, the emotion; everything about the performance moved me. I was completely mesmerized.
How did I not know about this band earlier? Naturally Google gave me all of the information I needed. The Civil Wars are a singer-songwriter pair from Nashville, Tennessee, Joy Williams and John Paul White, who have been making music together since they met in 2008. Everything
about their album Barton Hollow is perfection. The entire album is
solid, not just a few good singles. Every song connects. I haven't felt
so strongly about an album in a long, long time.
Kudos and sincere thanks to the band for amazing, heartfelt, addictive and real music. A sound like this is hard to come by these days. They capture the emotion perfectly and their lyrics are timeless. Naturally The Civil Wars won a Grammy for Best County Duo and Best Folk Album for Barton Hollow; entirely well deserved.
Here's the video that got me hooked
and, my personal favourite track off of Barton Hollow.
Apparently time flies. I haven't written in nearly a year and I'm feeling like I need to get back on the bandwagon. There was a reason I started this blog. I feel really great when I write and I think that's the reason why I need to keep it up. Part of me isn't sure where to go with it in terms of content and theme so I'm just going to go with whatever feels right. Another part of me is self conscious in that I have no idea what people will think about my skill as a writer or the content I've chosen. The latter issue is what I'm going to work on forgetting about. A good friend of mine, Greg Lau, has encouraged me to get back at it as well. That was some really nice feedback and motivation. Apparently I have a fan! Who knew? Thanks pal. So from here on out, here goes! This time... no expectations.
As I sit here this mild December night, I'm listening to some good music from the early 2000s. I am absolutely craving new tracks from some of my go-to artists from previous years. I've Googled and find some of them haven't been working on new music in quite some time. Some though, hopefully, have been in the studio recording tracks for albums set to release in 2012 & 2013. Here are a few of the ones I'm craving most: Fiona Apple, The Knife, LCD Soundsystem, Modest Mouse, The National, Outkast, Phoenix, Radiohead, Robyn, The Sounds and TV on the Radio.
I'll leave you with some tracks to remind you how amazing some of these artists are. Here's to hoping 2012 will bring some inspiring, new music to our headphones! (Try isohunt.com for the torrents, I have no idea how to link an audio file... yet).
My intention was to write each and every week but I've missed mark. No use in dwelling, onwards and upwards!
This is going to be a short post but I just wanted to post an AWESOME track. I've noticed that RIM's BlackBerry has jumped on the RJD2 bandwagon in their most recent commercial for the Torch. The song "Ghostwriter" echoes in the background of the commercial. It reminded me of the good old days back in school listening to it over and over and over again (literally on repeat; thank you iTunes). I have to say, this is hands down one of my all-time favourites. Anyway, enjoy my friends!
There will be more musical greatness to come this week. Hint: Radiohead's The King of Limbs!
For those who enjoy following the glitz & glamour of Hollywood, the Golden Globes are a very special event. For those of you who forgot about them and missed the boat, welcome to my world! I unknowingly flipped through channels Sunday night and somehow missed one of the biggest Hollywood award ceremonies of the year. I usually enjoy tuning in to see the fabulous style and take note of films and TV I should be watching throughout the year. The Golden Globes are arguably the most prominent awards show after The Academy Awards so they're kind of a big deal. Call it a guilty pleasure; sometimes watching the ridiculously rich and famous reward themselves for "excellent work" is moderately entertaining.
The entertainment news world was buzzing with debate over The Golden Globes as I woke Monday morning. Google News Canada had thousands of articles, blogs, videos debating the 'appropriateness' of Ricky Gervais hosting commentary. Naturally YouTube was my immediate source of enlightenment. First I watched highlights of Ricky's monologue and bits stringed together for a reel of his comedic insanity; all alone, I literally found myself laughing out loud. Ricky was borderline inappropriate and hilarious all at the same time!
Call my cynical but all of his commentary was everything we all know (and sometimes love) about celebrities and all of their oddities. He touched on everything! Some say he was inappropriate and took his comedy way too far. Others say that his comedy was dark but hilariously entertaining. I would agree with the latter side of this debate. Though the forum wasn't obviously the most expected venue for such off-side comedy, Ricky was genius. His comedy was sly, cynical and extremely sarcastic. Just the way I like it! Kudos to you Ricky, for having the 'kehones' to say all of the things you said and for entertaining me (if it was only through YouTube and not on live TV). If only you would be back again for another Golden Globes hosting gig next year! I somehow doubt that will happen.
Here's a link to a clip of some of Ricky's best Golden Globe work:
It seems as though everyone always wants to get into better shape, be less stressed, save more money, eat less crap, etc. especially this time of year. Rather than make a lofty, unattainable resolution, this year I thought I'd try something new - not make one at all! Most times unrealistic expectations are set we're left feeling disappointed and not very encouraged to make great strides to be 'better'. I'm sure I'm not along one this one.
Rather, I decided to make more of a lifestyle change rather than a resolution. Honestly it started with a goal to get into better shape. This is one of the goals a lot of people my age (younger and older for that matter) have worked on with some failure and some success. Props to everyone who's able to incorporate it into their lives with ease but truthfully I need to work at it; as I'm sure a lot of others do too. I have my lazy days or days where I want to eat McDonalds (Lord knows this is true!) but I'm attempting to incorporate it into my lifestyle which makes it just a little bit easier.
Anyway, one of my colleagues at the VON ventured down the same path towards better health and wellness; and she's made amazing strides! She has lost loads of weight, feels and looks great! (Cecelia, I hope you don't mind but you're doing so well I had to drop a name). She discovered a great web resource and it's helped us keep on track. It's awesome!
My Fitness Pal: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ is great for tracking food and fitness progress. From the first time I logged on (for FREE!) I was hooked. It allows you set realistic goals, track food, add exercise, monitor progress and create reports. The site also has a forum feature where people post great recipes, exercise programs, tips, tricks for general support. If you're anything like me, you need to know that what you're doing is going to make an impact and get results. This site has the capability to create reports so for instance if you consume 1400 calories throughout the day (using the food tracker) and go for an hour long moderate paced walk; you would have the option to view reports based on Nutrition, Fitness and Progress. The reports obviously have better data if you enter the information regularly. The site also highlights portion sizes and accurately captures what you're actually eating vs how many calories you think you've consumed. My goodness they should pay me for all of this praise!
One of the downfalls I found that may not work for everyone is in order to use the site in all its functional glory, it's best to enter your info each and every day. That way all the information is current and reports can be accurate. This is where I sometimes fail, understandably. The only other downfall I found when using the site was the Food Tracker does not always have the capability to accurately calculate homemade meals especially salads and stir fry's as these meals need to be entered individually by ingredient only on the first time you enter that meal into the site. It's just a pain in the ass. After that, you can select one of the meals you've eaten and entered beforehand. Many of the food options on the site are for food products you would commonly find in the grocery store.
Either way, for a free web resource it's pretty amazing. Check it out and use it for all it's cool features. I'm sure tons of people would benefit from it! Let me know how it pans out!
I'll end with a song that should absolutely be a regular iPod selection for your workout. Listen to my favourite 'Hamiltonian' band, Junior Boys, "In the Morning" (2007):
I've always been meaning to start up some sort of writing project. I wasn't fussy as to what type of forum I used. Now I've mustered up the courage to start a blog with the inspiration and encouragement of one of my best friends, Miss Michelle over at http://ellehermansen.blogspot.com/.
My intention is to be realistic in how often I plan to write as quality is very important to me. Each and every week I will post an entry about random musings; hopefully you've figured out by the title of my blog (as you are smart little readers I'm sure). ;) Most often you'll find cool music, new gems, old favourites, websites I love, and all people/ things/ industries / organizations I admire. I may venture a little off topic from time to time but such is the world of a blog. Oh the freedom!
Anyway the overall goal is honestly a selfish one. I want to push myself to learn and share more with people this New Year. I wouldn't necessarily call it a resolution but it's something I've always felt was important - sharing and learning, clearly as it is with most of you I'm sure. What better of an opportunity to do this than with a weekly blog? And, with that, I hope you'll follow along as time goes on, comment and let me know music/ websites/ people/ things / industries / organizations YOU care about too.
