My Journey Into Music

It may seem surprising, but I only got into pop music just over four years ago. (I'm 27) Before then I just listened to classical music that I got as gifts and soundtracks from movies I went to, most Disney.

It was Christmas 2004 and I was staying at my parents place. At the time I was living across the harbour from them, while I was doing my Masters'. One advantage of being at their place is that they get full analog cable (plus some digital stuff), while at the time I only got basic cable. This meant that I could watch music channels I normally didn't get, namely MuchMusic and MuchMoreMusic. My Dad also has a tendency to have MuchMusic on.

So I did a bunch of watching MuchMusic over the holidays and even saw their "Fromage" special celebrating the cheesiest music videos of the year. I saw some artists I seemed to like and decided to use some money I got from Christmas to buys a few albums.

I ended up buying five albums by five seperate artists: "Encore" by Eminem, "Chuck" by Sum 41, "Every Page You Turn" by Boy, "Still Not Getting Any..." by Simple Plan, and "The Chronicles of Life and Death" by Good Charlotte. I'm really into any of these groups at the moment, although Eminem's "Just Lose It" came up on iTunes's shuffle as I was writing this.

I found the website allmusic.com and used it to research music similar to those that I seemed to like. I also took suggestions from friends as they seemed happy to help me get into pop music. In this manner I sought out music by artists and groups such as Green Day, Billy Talent, Fall Out Boy, Gwen Stefani, Hot Hot Heat, Spoon, Maximo Park, The Hives, Franz Ferdinand, Bright Eyes, and many others. At this point I mainly stuck to Punk Pop and Indie Rock types of music, but also got more mainstream stuff like Josh Groban and Michael Buble.

After moving to Montreal (Fall 2005), I finally had the chance to see many of these acts live, and I did so (going to most concerts on my own, as most of my music tastes were not shared by my friends).

Since I found out about many bands through allmusic and other resources I didn't know what was super-popular and with whom. It was interesting to see that Fall-Out Boy, who had a stupid name and whose album I bought on a whim, had become quite popular. One of the first shows I went to was the All-American Rejects. I was quite surprised to find out that much of their fan base was rowdy teenage girls - I only found this upon going to their concert.

I found out about many cool artists from going to shows featuring other artists I liked. These included Ben Lee (who is awesome), Angelique Kidjo (who is also awesome), Anti-Flag, The (International) Noise Conspiracy, and Tokyo Police Club. When I first saw TPC they were the first of four bands, only had a 15 minute set, and seemed really unprofessional. Still, they were good, and I've seen them twice since and I love them.

My favourite live band is definitely Of Montreal, though they are closely followed by Scissors Sisters. The (International) Noise Conspiracy is also great live. Imogen Heap is a lovely person and has awesome shows - she chooses the best opening acts to tour with her.

Some bands aren't great live, such as The Bravery (the first band I saw live in fact). I also found out that in person the Kaiser Chiefs are a bunch of douche-bags.

In Montreal, I've also been able to go to see the Symphony (and other orchestras) frequently, and now appreciate classical music (including opera) more than ever.

While I focussed on pop music my first two years in Montreal, I spent my next year mainly enjoying live classical music. I'm taking a break from live shows this year for the most part, going only to the opera. Also, while I've collected a large CD collection, I'm now just enjoying what I have and getting only a few new works.

I no longer actively seek new music to listen to, but I can enjoy almost anything. Though recent pop music doesn't seem to appeal to me much.

See you later!

The Watchmen & Humanity

Hi All!

I saw the new Watchmen movie yesterday. It was excellent; probably the best movie based on a comic book. I highly recommend it. You can watch a review I did of it here.

The best part of the movie was that it provided a plethora of topics to think about. The character of Dr. Manhattan provided several of these topics by himself. In particular, I couldn't help but identify a little with the doctor in his lack of connection to humanity.

I often feel like a robot observing the world but not interacting with it. I walk from one place to another in the city without caring or even noticing the people I pass along the way. I care about my immediate family and friends. But people I don't know (or don't know well) don't inspire empathy or compassion from me. I think part of my problem is that I don't interact with others often enough, something I'm trying to repair. Perhaps this was part of Dr. Manhattan's problem as well.

While I certainly don't consider people akin to unliving matter, often the deaths of people mean little to me. While I feel a token sympathy when I hear of deaths on the news, they really don't mean anything to me. I felt nothing when I heard of the 9/11 plane crashes. If a large proportion of humanity was killed in a major disaster, I don't think I'd really care. I often think that it would be neat to see the end of the world in my lifetime.

Similar to the doctor, there are many aspects of humanity that I don't understand and strongly dislike. The idea of getting in touch with humanity is a scary one. The Comedian was knowledgeable about the truth of humanity and he was a murderer and rapist.

Rather than self-exile, I'm going to continue to interact with people in small amounts and hopefully I'll make more friends and learn more about how and why people act.

Hey, my French classes will also help is this. Language is a good connection to the mindset and nature of people.

See you next time!

Waking Up and Playing DS Games

Hi All

I'm finally regaining my composure after muddling in depression for the past month or so. I just posted a new youtube video. And now I'm finally updating this blog. Hopefully someone will read this!

I'm going to be more personal on this blog than I am on youtube. Of course, that's not hard since I never talk about myself in my videos.

So I've been having weird sleep patterns lately. But I'm finally getting over that, or at least adapting my life to it -> I just woke from a refreshing sleep and it's 1am! I'm also getting back to my studies. When I do this I realize that I enjoy learning about mathematical modeling and simply learning new things in general.

It's also nice to add more abstract and technical knowledge to what my brain is pondering. It's good brain exercise and I haven't been getting enough of that lately.

On a different note, I thought I'd talk about the fun I've been having with the Nintendo DS I bought at Christmas. I originally bought two games with it: The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Ring of Fates. I have a history of leaving video games unfinished. This has certainly happened with these games.

I've since bought a bunch of short fluff DS games and finished all of them. One was Dragon Ball Origins, which was actually quite good. Three are Sims games, which eat up time but have little substance - they're still fun though.

I of course have along shopping list of new and soon to be released games - including Dragon Quest IX, Pokemon Platinum, Suikoden Tierkeis, as well as the new Crystal Chronicles game: Echoes of Time. It's an incentive to finish Ring of Fates before that one comes out.

Maybe I'll even get back to finishing Dragon Quest VIII and Final Fantasy XII on the PS2. . . eventually. (lol)

Until next time!

(which will hopefully be sooner)