Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat

For those who don’t know, my soccer team is called Panic* FC .. holla holla!

* named after a tune by the Smiths.

Children.

They are people too.

Little do we know, these little things have been infrequently used as musical instruments since Moses parted that sea in Egypt. Anyone see “the prince of egypt” before? Pretty whacked shit. Anyways, it takes a true musical enthusiast to listen to a song, go ‘hmm… i wonder what other songs contain children singing in them’ and then spend the next hour thinking about it. So here is this weeks edition of 4 for 4, with the help of Vik.

Here are four songs I have selected.

Suede - We Are the Pigs: The children are added to the end of the tune, to give the whole apocalyptic feel of the song greater effect…like ‘holy crap, kids are singing in this song so it is totally epic and dark’. Seriously, this is one of my favorite songs ever.

Belle and Sebastian - I’m a Cuckoo (Avalanche Remix): I did this one for Angelina Jolie. Seriously, this remix of the B&S song features AFRIKAN Kids singing in it, all happy and stuff too. IF they played this song while Alex Trebek is doing those Unicef commercials, No one would donate money since it sounds just like a grand ole party. It’s not. So donate money. The kids are inserted in to make the song sound more happy.

The Wombats - Lets Dance To Joy Division: I already covered how catchy this song was in my previous post, however, this was the song that made me all ‘hmmm..’ so I include in it.

The Housemartins - Bow Down: ooooooooooooooold schoo. The kids help out with the chorus.

Other songs that could have been in this post:

Maia Hirasawa - You and Me and Everyone We Know
Hefner - Day that Thatcher Dies
JUSTICE - Dance
All Jackson 5 songs

 

 Suede - We Are The Pigs [4:20m]: Play Now

 

 Belle and Sebastian - Im A Cuckoo (Avalanches Remix) [3:56m]: Play Now

 

 The Wombats - Lets Dance to Joy Division.mp3 [3:11m]: Play Now

 

 The Housemartins - Bow Down [3:02m]: Play Now

If you asked me 3 weeks ago to watch a Bollywood film, I would have called you ‘paagal’ and thrown my chapal at you. Imagine my girlfriends’ surprise when I decided to make my first step into the magical world of multicoloured costumes, thrusting busts and wiggling hips. Saawariya (which means ‘beloved’) is based on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s book, ‘White Nights’, a story which I never knew existed until yesterday.

In typical Bollywood fashion this is a story follows a pair star-crossed lovers and shows their relationship unfold over a 4 night period. What drew me to this movie was that it wasn’t presented in the typical Bollywood style. Sure it had elaborate costumes and musical numbers, but the entire movie was filmed on a fantastic set that combined the cobblestones and waterways of Venice with a sprinkle of Moulin Rouge. Indian films typically shoot in huge mansions or exotic locales, where you can always catch a crowd of people watching the movie being filmed in the actual movie. I suppose the director had a lot of money to work with as this was released through Sony Pictures. The first Bollywood film to be funded by a big Hollywood Studio.

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable flick with lots of music, great acting by 2 Bollywood newbies and eye-pleasing cinematography. Also a great date movie for all you dudes out there.

4/5

If you think Feist is overexposed and you wish that other girl would just go into rehab and stay there, then your ears might be ready for some Basia Bulat. Basia is from London, Ontario, signed to Rough Trade Records, and released her first full length, “Oh, My Darling” this past year.

Basia has played quite a few shows around Toronto this past year, so I was pretty excited to finally be able to see her play so close to my house. She was scheduled to hit the stage at 10:30, so grabbed my camera ready to snap some shots. I quickly found out that I was out of film. I had a quick look around my place and realized that the only film I had in my house was for my Polaroid 600. I thought what the heck, I’ll try out my Polaroid skills. Might be interesting. It wasn’t.

I got to Lee’s about 20 minutes early and was able to find a nice spot right in front of the stage behind Frank Yang (chromewaves). Basia took the stage supported by her two ‘we make our own dresses’ friends on the violin and ukulele, and her brother on percussion. To say that Basia is easy on the eyes would be an understatement. She is a cutie that’s for sure, but don’t let my physical description of her take away from her talent. She is a great song writer with a warm stage presence. Her alt-country twang and melodies will get you boppin’, but she can also slow it down to make you wish you were running bare foot through a field of wet dewy grass in the early morning. You know, kind of like a Tide commercial.

A couple songs in I figured it was time to snap a couple pictures. So I stepped in front of Frank and did the best as I could. As my camera ejected each picture with the oh so familiar ‘cha cha grrrrrrrr’ rythm, I set it on the stage to develop. I didn’t shake them. You’re not supposed to shake them.

Frank didn’t look impressed.

4/5 - Can’t wait to see Basia again

Video HERE

You better believe I’ll be flooding this blog with every bit of info that comes up about this game. Oh how long I waited for a version of this game that made proper use of proton packs, traps and heck, even the EKG meter. The fact that Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson wrote the story AND lend their voices make it that much sweeter. Here’s hoping Bill dumps the monotone voice a la Lost in Translation, Broken Flowers and The Life Aquatic and gives us a loud ‘Alright…this chick is TOAST!’

Here’s a clip that shows a little bit of gamplay and an interview with the developers. It’s in Dutch, but I was able to pick up the gist of it:

Toronto - What’s with the slew of westerns coming out lately? You got 3:10 to Yuma, Assassination of Jesse James and now No Country for Old Men, the latest Coen Brother flick. I guess this really wasn’t a western, but it takes place in the heart of texas, people wear cowboy hats and speak slowly and hickish, theres a scene in a diner and plenty of guns. Sounds like a western to me.

What’s the movie about? Basically, some dude named Llewelyn (played by josh brolin) finds a bunch of money after discovering drug deal gone wrong and he gets chased across texas by this badass killer. The badass killer is played by some spanish dude named Javier Bardem. He is KICKASS in this movie. He’s unconcious. Just kills people left and right, and he has some awesome weapons. Without spoiling the movie, all I can say is, I want that weapon he has in a video game. That boy is cold. Tommy Lee Jones is in this movie too, he plays some aging sheriff whose seen it all and wonders if all this new found violence is just too much for him. It wasn’t me! it was the one armed man!! haha. Jokes.

So how is this movie? I liked it. The last twenty minutes of the movie will give you a whaaaaaaa moment, but that is probably typical of Coen Brother movie i guess. The badass killer is awesome, and man, there is some tension in this movie. Serious, serious moments of suspense. The cinematography is nice too and it really gives you a good sense of the more remote parts of Texas. The movie has it’s moments of violence, and some parts of the movie moves along reeaall slow. But I guess that is how life is like in the wild wild west.

3.5/5