Resurgam

Yes!
Like the shoots of spring this blog returns to life. Oh, but what a life indeed. I will proceed to make very good posts that will bring tears to the eye of the world, no doubt.

what's the good times?

I've been looking after my younger sister and brother of 5 and seven years of age. That has given me plenty of time to do things, which has been nice. For example, I've been reading a LOT. A few years ago I got sick of reading and just sort of stopped. Gradually I've brought it back into my life, but lately it's practically all I do.
I've been reading this french thing which is pretty boring but it's in french so that helps.
I've also been reading "Cats Eye" by margaret atwood and it's allright. It's kinda dull and her main character is not very sympathetic. So it's hard to care about her life. But it's interesting enough for me to continue reading.
I've been reading especially a lot of poetry anthologies. "Uncommon Wealth" is about writing in english through a long time and with many voices. What bugs me though is the social conscience of the book - it seems like it picks social peoms over other ones, to the point where I'm like "but they wrote so many great poems, why did you pick the terrible one about how black people are treated?" nevertheless it is interesting to hear what people of old thought about their own social issues. I eventually dropped it because of all the bad verse.
There's "the echoing years" too, an anthology of contemporary canadian and irish poetry set side by side. It's interesting because they are both so different and yet both in english and both colonies of engalnd and furthermore have so many connections through immigration of irish to canada.
The last one I've been reading has been "canadian poetry" which is historical and was written fifty years ago and thus extra historical. A lot of the poets are actually terrible but I've found a few I like (sangster, duncan campbell scott) and it feels good to know that a hundred years ago there were canadians who could write worth somethign at least.
Reading is pretty nice too.

A funny story

I think I have a swollen ankle from all that walking I did while job hunting.
>:C
Anyways...


I was walking home tonight...
And I was on a dark suburban street.
The kind where even though there are houses everywhere, you feel alone.
And I saw
Between me and my home
On the side walk
Three gangsta kids with their hoods up.
Moment of panic.
My swollen ankle hurt,
And I can't run anyways
Without making myself a target of derision.
So I said to myself
Whatever
Just walk.
The three hooded figures passed a street light
And it turned out they were elderly Chinese ladies with head scarves on.
Needless to say
I was both relieved and amused.

Oh yeah...

I sortof forgot this thing existed.
OH WELL
I'M HERE NOW ANYWAYS
I'm hanging on the eastside right now.
It's funny how quickly you become aqcuainted with things that seemed so strange...
But I mean I was born and raised here, so It's not as strange as we seem to think.

I been looking looking looking for a job. So much looking! Yes. And it's been fun. I just walk up and down the street dropping off resumes. I am somewhat anxious though... you know how it is, some places can be great or terrible and it all depends on the people you work with. I found some places that gave me good feelings though...

Because of all this stuff I been doing I am thinking about things like urban planning. Why do cities arrange themselves the way they do? How can people find happy lives there?
What is happiness?
It is altogether a very big thing.

Anyways, I'll leave on a funny note -

Q: What's the difference between a duck?
A: The left leg is always in trouble.

So anyways, fall...

The fall air is so crisp, is how people often describe it. Can it be true? Can the people of this world collectively come up with something resembling fact?
I guess so.
But I love fall air. It makes me feel so alive, compared to the hazy lazy summer air. And it makes me want to go places, do things... like watching leaves change colour.
Yesterday I went to a farmer's market, the ultimate fall activity. The apples, so fresh! The smiles, so true!
Then I went to the library. I didn't realize how much I missed reading books until I looked at them all. Who can put the joy of reading behind them, truly? Who can ever forsake the word? Only those who have chosen a path of rain and snow can blind themselves to the power of rock and roll.

I went to see John Ralston Saul at UBC. He is a very smart philosopher. He was giving a speech about how canada is in fact an aboriginal nation. Ideas like multiculturalism, pluralism, single-tier health care, and stuff like that can't be traced back to europe or the US, but can be traced to the first nations. I like this Idea and find it very true. I can't wait to see how people react and grow because of this book.
And so I wandered around Vancouver with my friend. It's beautiful there at night, if a little more dangerous. We should go to the library sometime...

Mornings... and music

Some mornings you get up and the sun is so faint...
I had some tea, you know, I always do. But when I sit in the shadowy sunlight I feel like I can be the world.

ANYWAYS this is all an introduction to "Harper: a Musical History"

My youngest experiences with music were with enya http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae68NB-mOe4 and video game music. This left me with the impression that I liked classical music, but in fact I didn't. But enya and video game music both use the orchestral style, which is the cause of the confusion.
At this time I also listened to Aqua and Chumbawamba. These weren't nearly as influential for me though.
Anyways, this all sort of continued until in Grade 8 I really started to connect into the popular music scene. The musician who I like the most was Esthero. http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=tl8l3S6cXos She had a great voice and sung about strange and surreal things to a very harsh backing of "trip hop" music. The reason why I eventually took her off the pedestal was because she just wasn't much of a thinker... and she swore a lot in her interviews. I found it hard to respect the music of someone who couldn't explain why it was so meaningful. In retrospect, this is a little harsh, but that's the way I thought back then.
The next person to hold the pedestal was Bjork. http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=CYP9lA-g1_I Unlike Esthero, she had a lot to say, and she spoke in ways that really made you think. Not only that, but she tickled my sense of strange - she said and did such weird things. Eventually, however, it came to feel like they were meaningless. Odd for the sake of odd. They didn't have any underlying ideas or principles that I could relate too.
The most recent idol to hold the pedestal was then Kate Bush. http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=_BZsXVf6INc She thinks about things - a lot. Most of her songs can even be dissected in the manner of a novel. She also satisfied the weird quotient. Her music videos often involved interpretive dance, and had premises like dancing through hell. She had depth, she had weird, and she had art. And she is currently uncontested for the spot of Harper's musical idol.
But I also listened to a lot of other things at the time. In video game music, I've progressed along Yasunori Mitsuda, http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=laMvJf9UNdc Nobuo Uematsu, http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=08RYp-uDpPo Hiroki Kikuta, http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=ESRBmkK_Gwk and Akira Yamaoka. http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=xTkVMYAsdf0 But There's a story to it.
In my childhood VG music was practically the only music I listened to, because I was constantly exposed to it. But once I got involved in the popular music scene around grade 8, I let it slip from my music listening. But sometime around, oh, I dunno... grade ten, I happened upon a website devoted to it. I was flooded with the music of my childhood, and music by new composers or other music by composers I already knew. It was more than nostalgia - It was a reawakening.
Anyways, during all this time, I myself composed music. I started off at a young age, on a computer music program. I fiddled and fiddled mostly, and gradually built a knowledge of musical composition. When I rediscovered video game music, I actually made my own video game soundtrack. It was pretty good. I kept working at it. Lately though, I haven't... why? I have learned to play the guitar. Starting at the beginning of grade twelve, I was taught by my friend. That lasted about six months, and since then I have just been teaching myself. It has really changed the way I think about music, and it's far more satisfying to play a song instead of just hearing it played back by the computer.

So... this has been pretty exhaustive. I hope it's not one of those things that nobody but me cares about. I'll write nicer things later, I promise.

music

This is music I made on the computer.
That is all.