Sunday, September 25, 2005

if you want to have your cake and eat it too go ahead

So school starts tomorrow and I have mixed emotions abound. It's sad that the summer's ending, but shit this is my last year at the UofO, it looks like I'm actually gonna pull this shit off in four years, who would have thought. I'm getting a little nervous because I'm gonna have to start applying for Grad schools pretty soon to get my teaching cert. but I have no idea what's gonna be involved in the whole process. I do know that I'm gonna have to take a lot of tests that I'll probably be woefully unprepared for. In the more immediate future I just printed out the syllabus for my Hist 410? class the American west, the bitch is 9 mofo pages long! Who does that a 9 page syllabus for christssake.
I was happy to make a return to reading this summer and I managed to finish a few choice books. Right now I'm in the middle of reading "The Professor and The Madman" nonfiction about the construction of the Oxford English Dictionary. Nerds of the world unite! What can I say for all my lazy grammar and unadorned language I love the words.
One reason for the shoddy upkeep of this blog over the summer aside from uncomfortable seats and patchy internet has been my decision to back off the "must get it first" music train. In a way I sort of took a vacation form finding new music and tried to get to know my old stuff a little better and managed to reintroduce myself with some really fab artists ie: The Good Life, Metric, The first coupe Rilo Kiley albums, Miles Davis and some Django Reinhardt. There are plenty more but those just came to mind. That's not to say there weren't some amazing releases these last few months most notably The two Ryan Adams records, Sufjan Stevens, The Fiery Furnaces (probably the wierdest album I've ever heard), Franz Ferdinand, You Say Party, We Say Die!, and Devendra Banhart.
I'm actually quite intrigued with where it seems like the scene is going right now with the "indie genre" being able to accept new wave retreads (just about everyone) , epic theatrical releases (arcade fire, sufjan), Country (Ryan Adams, Bright Eyes), "freak folk"(Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom) and even, ready for this?... hip hop (mf doom, atmosphere). For a scene that prides it's self on exclusivity and self importance what I'm wondering is the music getting that much better or is "indie scene" starting to crumble. You must admit that this last year has been one of transistion for indie rock with the tight rope act being walked by "indie bands" the killers the bravery death cab for cutie modest mouse etc.. Our little scene is growing up .
Also just wanted to put the word out to any Elliott Smith fans that the new film Thumbsucker a soundtrack entirely composed by Tim Delaughter of the polyphonic spree other than three Elliott songs including 2 new tracks . His Amazing cover of BigStar's "thirteen" possibly my favorite Elliott track and a Cat Stevens cover "Trouble". A highly recommended pick up if you get a chance.
Ok then music.

posted by Connor Bonazzola at 1:13 PM 20 comments