a year teaching english in korea...
then, a year backpacking through 33 countries, from korea to ireland...
and now i'm home in vancouver, and trying to figure out what to do next...
this is the story.
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BJORK
Sunday, May 27, 2007
may 23, 2007
i have wanted to see BJORK live for as long as i can remember. the day came and went last wednesday at deer lake park in burnaby. in a field of neatly trimmed grass, surrounded by trees on the edge of a lake, thousands gathered to listen to her sing.
i went with my friend tara. started out nice enough drinking slurpees in the car while her mom drove us out to burnaby. (thanks sadie!) felt like highschool with the parents driving us to concerts. we waited outside on the grass for an hour before the doors opened, then found a nice spot of grass not too far from the stage.
the opening band, GHOSTIGITAL, hailed from iceland. they weren't too well received by the crowd, though i really enjoyed them. basically just a dj and a vocalist. beats and noise and lots of effects, laid on top of vocal tracks, wild stories about getting drunk, sitting on green sofas and looking at glaciers.
Ghostigital Opening for Bjork
(in an icelandic accent) "hello....vankoooveerrr! vee ar gosteegeetal. you know...vhen i am coming to vankooverr and i am seeteeng in my hotel dis morrrning...and i am opening dee blinds dees morrning. vhat did i see? no not rain, i see dee mountains...and it reeemindds me of when i am home, in iceland and i am sitting on my greeen sofa and i wake up and i look ooout da vindow and i see dee glacierrrss...anddee mountains look like dee glaciers..."
and then lay on a beat...and you have ghostigital...
in another story he speaks of locking himself out of his house in his boxer shorts...no not boxer shorts...his g-string, and he has no pockets for his keys...
or coming home drunk from the bar after he pissed all over himself and sat down on his green sofa and the sofa said to him "why are you putting your ass on my face?" and so he warned us that when we go home, to be polite, and to ask our sofa if we can sit on it's face...
anyways...i liked them...
bjork herself, decked out in a metallic dress with neon highlights looked tiny and bellowed out her songs with amazing clarity. two dj's and a keyboardist backed her up along with the "icelandic brass corporation," a collection of what-looked-like teenage girls playing brass instruments, dressed in giant neon bellowing bags...
Bjork - Army Of Me
Bjork - Hyperballad (my favourite song)
Bjork - I Miss You
Bjork - Oceania
Bjork - Earth Intruders
somebody who was a bit closer got this video of 'declare independence'
wow! i'm 28. really, i remember when this seemed so far away...when it seemed like anyone 28 was a real bona fide adult...and here i am...and i'm not an adult...only legally.
opening presents when i'm four...
i still enjoy the swings... getting so drunk i hardly remember the night before... laughing at dirty jokes... going to bed way too late for work tomorrow... working through a hangover...(maybe not enjoy, but it happens) and all kinds of other so-called 'childish' things...
this time last year, i spent it with someone i no longer speak to...someone i miss here and there, but am content to let her do her thing...i've moved on...
the year before, i was in turkey and the year before that in south korea... i've spent birthdays completely in french...twice...at french camp...those were awesome!!!
enough...here i am. i'm happier than i've been in a long time. i've got good friends, i do fun things...i enjoy every day. my garden is awesome and i love sitting out there on the rug and looking at all the plants. i've decided to buy a little bbq and cook myself tasty steaks and handmade chicken burgers...grilled asparagus...hot dogs, all summer. my snap peas should be here in a month or so, along with tomatoes and fresh strawberries in july. some of my plants have flowered and the rest are opening buds as we speak.
i'm in a crazy class this week. five days, nine hours a day. i had to take the week off work just to get it done...and that i will, 3 credits, 5 days, one week, wound and blunt force trauma assessment done. after that it's just my saturday morning science, technology and the law class until june 23rd and i graduate.
i'm also trying out a master cleanse. i found a website that recommended 3-5 days and another 10. an ex-gf's mom did it once for 30 days. basically, i eat nothing. i drink lemon water, cayenne pepper and organic natural maple syrup mixed together. 3 litres of it a day. i'm starving...i want a cheeseburger, i want an ice cold beer on a patio. i was going to do it for 5 days, but decided to cut it down to 4. that's fine...that'll work for me. today is day three.
saturday is my 10-year reunion. i'm excited to see everyone and just get out for the night.
i like nicholas haggard's photos of quiet places, reflective moments and tranquil times.
they are moments in time captured forever. the lighting reminds me of the eighties and summers away with friends, when the sky was blue and the sun was low...scents of summer in the breeze...
spring time...i've planted a garden to give me something to do for the summer. i like growing things, but i've learned that i'm not very patient...so hopefully this garden will give me some. just now, it's nice to sit out there in the afternoon sun and smoke and see the wind blow the grasses and leaves around...
cost = around $150 for everything...not bad...
my little deck and garden so far...
my snap peas are doing very well. they started as seeds. i know i probably have too many here, but i couldn't bring myself to cull any of my little seedlings. poor guys, they all deserve to live! the tomato seedlings are just to the left, growing slowly but surely.
this planter box features olive carex grass, aster ball florist mix, osteospermum cream and pink spoon flowers and border pink dianthus.
this planter box features two types of dahlias, nemesia carnival mix, deep blue tower forget-me-not and verbena patio reds.
in these pots i've got strawberries, english daisies, pristine blue irises, bearberry cotoneaster and some more nemesia.
hopefully, i'll get some blooms in the next few weeks...by mid-late june, everything should be bright and colourful...and i should be eating strawberries and snap peas...maybe some tomatoes.
it's been a busy week. the renovation at earls is coming along nicely and i've stopped by a few times to see how it's progressing. i'm back at work on monday...but have had all kinds of seminars this week to make sure we're all up on the new menu items and drink specs.
i used to be a huge fan of much music. i still am, i just don't watch it like i used to. i used to just leave it on, mute or not, the whole time i was home. a moving pictures background that epitomized what was cool and happening in urban culture and fad and music and art at the time. i found my favourite videos. i'll share them. in no particular order.
1. foo fighters - everlong i love this video because it reminds me of dreams i've had. my favourite part is when the bed turns into a drumset and dave and pat pull off their skin and have guitars inside.
2. daft punk - around the world i remember when daft punk was all i listened to. back in my rave days in the mid-late nineties. this video is awesome because each character dances to a different beat. it's the perfect visual representation of a song with beats. try focusing on each set of dancers and you'll be able to pull out of the song, the track that they're dancing too. everyone together...and you have the song.
3. radiohead - karma police the cinematography here is awesome. it's creepy...haunting...confusing. seriously, my heart beats twice as fast when i watch it and i feel sick. needless to say, it's also an amazing song.
4. bjork - human behaviour i love bjork! almost every single one of her music videos are incredible, but this one is particularly special.
5. jamiroquai - virtual insanity jamiroquai is a great musician. this song has a certain unforgettable funk and dynamic and the video is original. during the shoot the floor remained stationary and a bunch of guys pushed the walls around...while jamiroquai danced around. my favourite part is at 2:07 when the crow flies through. near the end of the video (and i learned this from the much-missed pop-up-video show) all the walls were supposed to leak blood. you can see a little spout of blood just to the right of jamiroquai where the crow flies up from a second time. that was the only blood spurt that worked...and they decided to not do a second shoot.
6. wu tang clan - triumph this is the song that first got me listening to hip hop music. honestly, most rap videos suck. they're all about dancing on the beach, girls shaking their booty, and cars, triumph is different. it's well...watch it and you'll see. there never was and never will be another rap video like it.
7. live - freaks whatever happened to live? they used to be the hottest band on the planet when lightning crashes came out (which is another great video, by the way). this one i like a bit more. i guess it's just the song, but it's one of the few videos that includes the band just playing that i like. i like his clockwork orange stare.
8. justin timberlake - cry me a river i'm a big fan of justin, you can say whatever you want, but he's got a voice and moves and is cool. my favourite part is when he dances and floats and hangs over the furniture. in fact, i love all of justin's videos. i'm going to take some flak for this...especially from you GLYN!
9. marilyn manson - the dope show i'm also a big fan of marilyn. i like the androgynous body suit in the video. it's freaky and weird and perfectly...manson.
10. michael and janet jackson - scream again, because when michael is cool...he's just cool. put everything else he's done aside...he's an artist. he can dance, he can sing...and along with janet...it's a great video.
11. run dmc vs jason nevins - it's like that i've never been that into breakdancing. but i like this video.
12. beastie boys - sabotage couldn't leave this one out. the song is awesome, it's a fun video and the guy who falls in the pool looks like my grade nine pe teacher.
13. weezer - say it ain't so i like weezer a lot, i like this song and video even more. it reminds me of my teenage basement room, ceiling covered in carpet so i could jam with my friends. there's lots of cool camera angles...not much else i can say. a lot of other weezer videos could be included in this list...of course, buddy holly is a great video...and undone the sweater song.
14. daft punk - da funk yes, another daft punk video. bet most of you forgot about this one! the dog with a broken leg and a ghetto-blaster. so bizarre it's cool.
i just watched "the last king of scotland" what a crazy and freaky movie...it actually happened! forrest whitaker did an amazing job as ugandan president amin, who took control by a coup d'etat in the early 70's. the story focuses on a young scottish doctor who decides to travel to uganda to help poor villagers and by chance becomes the personal physician to amin.
my garden is doing really well on my patio. i spent $120 on sunday buying a couple of planter boxes to hang over the railing and some pots and lots of plants. my tomatoes and snap peas are doing well. i've got strawberries and english daisies, irises, nemesia, forget-me-nots, "patio red" verbena, asters, cream and pink spoons, bearberry cotoneaster, dianthus, olive carex grasses and dahlias. i will post pics once they all bloom.
leah and tyler...
alan with mass undergoe at the buffalo club...
penny, randal and leah... randal always looks like he's saying something angry...
last thursday was the earls staff party. good times! we started at joeys for some pre-drinks, then downtown to whineo's, then the buffalo club, then the royal and finally the roxy. i had an awesome time!
