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Things to check out:
Music: The Decemberists
The Decemberists land somewhere in the indiepop/indierock catergorie. No mind-blowing fusion of genres here but The Decemberists manage to set themselves a little bit away from most of their contemporaries largely due to the sheer quality of their music. While there are hundreds of commendable indierock/pop bands out there a large percentage of them are largely forgetable. Where the Decemberists excel is their absurdly great sense of songwriting. Songs are often littered with multiple hooks, making them memorable, hummable and they'll soon attach themselves to your mind. But The Decemberists is more that a catchy pop song-writing wonder; there is depth here too. Their musicianship is plenty commendable and they do a fine job of dodging musical cliches. They'll certainly catch you by suprise every now and then. Possibly their greatest strenght, however, is their lyrical prowess. The Decemberists use alot of history in their lyrics, meaning, many of their songs take place well over a hundred some odd years in the past and include historically accurate items, places and events. "Legionnaire's Lement" is a perfect example of this as the song chronicles the woe and heat exhaustion of a French soldier sent to Algeria during a scuffle between the countries in the 1830's. The song includes obscure French refrences like "lacking my joie de vivre" or things like "laudanum" and "charabanc". Aside from being historical, The Decemberist implement alot of beauty into their lyrics as well such as in "Grace Cathedral Hill", a sort of simple love song. At other times they can be haunting. "Leslie Anne Levine" is the story of prematurely born baby who died three hours after birth along with her young mother. Leslie lives on as a ghost who haunts the town, wailing and clinging to the body of her dead mother. Intense, no? Their album "Castaways and Cutouts" is exceptional and well worth the purchase.
Reccomended Songs:
Leslie Anne Levine ~ A haunting and cleverly written accordian pop song.
Grace Cathedral Hill ~ It might take a few listens but if you're a sucker for love songs this song may very well grow on you more than any other by this band.
July, July! ~ If there were to be a radio single on "Castaways and Cutouts" this would be it. Energetic and unforgivingly catchy.
The Legionnaire's Lament ~ Almost as high enery as July, July! but bouncier, a little more brooding and more on the indieROCK side of the fence.
California One Youth and Beauty Brigade ~ This is essentially two songs merged into one huge 10 minute track. "California One" is a slow moving, pretty ballard-sounding song which stands nicely on it's own. But, indeed I've come to hear it lately as a prepping for "Youth and Beauty Brigade" the second part of the song which is a more anthematic song calling forth all the "castaways and cutouts" finishes off the album on a swelling high note that can indeed come across as uplifting. This 10 minute track is arguably the best one on the album and is one that will only get better with repeated listens
Movies: The City of Lost Children
Oh Jean-Pierre Jeunet! (director of Amelie and Delicatessen)
Imaginative, dark, charming, manic, humorous, horrific, immersive, dreamy, bizarre, heart-warming, and in the end... whimsical and fairy tale-like. C'mon, you know you want to see it already.
Like always, I'll only tell you so much about the movie, I don't want to ruin it for you. Krank is a desperate madman who lives on a tower out in the sea along with his tiny mother, 5 identical brothers, and uncle who is a brain in a tank, all of them, genetically engineered. His desperation and what one could arguably call evil comes from his inability to dream. So he steals children from the mainland and tries to take their dreams, but alas, the children only dream nightmares, all of them, afraid.
One (it's his name) is a warm-hearted strongman at a funfair with a little brother. One night little brother is stolen by the evil "Chosen Ones". One sets out to rescue little brother and soon finds himself acquanted with a group of children whose profession is thievery. One of them, a somewhat bitter and quite serious girl by the name of Miette, joins him on his search.
Across the adventure you'll be introduced to more memorable characters and scenery then you're likely guessing. All of this is masterfully directed by the amazing Jean-Pierre Jeaunet.
The movie falls short of poignant (certain scenes can certainly be touching though) but it's not really aiming to be. What it is though, is a very entertaining film, loaded with fantastic, memorable characters, amazing, inventive scenery, an intruiging and engaging story, a fair share of funny bits and an all around feeling of wonder that is rarely matched.
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What's New These Days?
October 17th
Today I added the Anime Hair page! If ever you've wondered how those anime characters got their hair to do all the crazy stuff then I highly recommend checking it out. Let's see if I can start updating more often, yah?
July 25th
Sorry I havn't been updating. That whole life thing has been a bit intrusive. So anyways. New weekly thoughts, new band to check out, Britney's Cry is a permanent feature, a while back I added a number of photos to the imagery section and the other day I added one to the People Pictures section. Plus. . . I'm working on a new page. So soon you'll see something actually new and update worthy.
March 10th
People! Thanks to all of you who participated in the walk out! It was rather exhilerating! Yer an awesome bunch! By the end of this week I'll probobly have a lil page up with pictures from the walkout and rally so look for that in the coming days. Well I just updated the Bi-weekly Thoughts. Yup. Bi-weekly. I realized. . . I never do it weekly! So, I decided to make it so that I'm at least not lying. So yeah, check out this fortnight's thoughts though. It's the shout-out edition and is almost exciting! Hmmm, I'll probobly change the recommendations sometime soon too. So look for that later this week as well.
Febuary 27th
Folks! Hello! So far the Furry Advice Column is going well but I need you people to keep sending in (do check out the three ones there already). Now, the big news! Go to the new page, to learn all about the student walk out on the March 5th (that's Wednesday people!) GO NOW!
Much love to you.
Febuary 20th
HI! Look at me! All updating again. Well I've added a good bit to the About Meself page (including a super hot picture of myself in nothing but a tiny t-shirt!). the big news is the addition of a new section! FURRY ADVICE COLUMN! So go there and prompty send me an e-mail asking for my life-changing-good advice. Untill next time, keep those teeth flossed!
Febuary 15
So... I sure have been a slacker. Last I updated was november 23rd? Sheesh. Well, I know that's not totally true, but it was the last time I made any big updates. Well either way, here I am and I have added a couple pics to "People Pictures" a few to "Imagery" from my recent trip to the East Coast and even one especially horrifying picture to the "Condiment Hell!" page. Weekly thoughts have been updated and so have the musical and theatrical reccomendations to the left. Not to mention the splendid little new icon above the navigation! Would you believe it's an octopus?! So, now that I've said all that. How the hell are you? Valentine's Day treat you well? Yeah, I didn't get any flowers either. (oh and if you did... well, blah!) So, E-mail me, we can get sloppy drunk, cry over our barren romantic lives, senslessly make out and regret it in the morning. It'll be excellent.
November 23rd
Heya kiddos! Sorry I havn't updated in a while... I've been buisy?... Either that or too emo to convince myself to do anything. Damn, those emo conspiracists have got to me and won... *shrugs* Oh well. So let's see, because I havn't updated in a while, I've made this update pretty intense in hopes that I can redeem myself to all you fine people. First off, People Pictures has a number of new additions (although I actually added those a number of days back), Written Word has recieved a large and very needed update so give that a looksee, I also updated Weekly Thoughts, Things To Check Out, Featured Link, Special Feature and yeah, I think that's about that. So with any luck and/or a small amount of determination my next update will be quite soon. So, I hope you have a lovely day, and if you don't, please take in this thought; the moon is beautiful... absolutely beautiful.
October 15th
I've added that page License Quest... Read it, cry for me. Also, as you probobly noticed there is that big ol blatant welcome picture... HEY! Halloween isn't too far off! I needs to be thinking of a costume... yes... yes indeed.
October 8th:
As I'm sure most of you noticed, this lil' page here has a new look. Yipee! Also, what was foremly simply known as "Imagery" has now become two separate pages. One for people only (People Pics), the second for assorted other pictures (this one retained the name Imagery). Expect the new Imagery page to see alot of new stuff quite soon.
Well, now with all of that out of the way... how the hell are all of you? Yeah, I know, school's a bummer. But hey, make the best out of it or some shite like that right? So hey, I hope you're having a good one. Adieu.
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