The Tragedy of Written Words

Dirty Words
This picture comes from flickr. I found it appropriate...

I am feeling very poetic and artsy this week. Somehow this always happens when I have a lot of work to do. I want a video camera right now; I have some ideas, but I cannot create these things since I have neither the means nor the time. I shall have to just put those ideas and emotions in a box and take the box out when time permits (Bree reference). It is sad to me that my schoolwork does not allow me to express myself visually or aurally. It is all words, words, words- written words (minus a few videos in MIT). I clearly appreciate words, but I cannot solely live my life by written words.
*sigh*
And now I go to do some reading before class. More written words...

(Wishing I could be) Listening to: Stars, but I can't focus. It makes me dream too much. Mood: Dreamy. Wanting summer.
What a traditional "journal blog" entry! But I needed some form of expression at the moment. This shall not be the norm for me, fyi.

Dead Child Star

Warning to Vakar: Only read this post when you have caught up on your music! :)

I just got back from a walk to two different libraries on campus. While walking I listened to Q the podcast. This episode was taped before a live audience in Vancouver to gear up for the Junos. Jian Ghomeshi (the host) was particularly lively this episode! I was very much amused by the playful banter between Jian and his guests. I was grinning all the way there and back and I burst out with a stifled laugh a few times! I bet people I past were wondering about me...

The point of this entry is that Torquil Campbell from Stars (my all time favourite band) was randomly in the audience. Jian recognized him and had Torq come up and talk for a little (this was one of the times I burst out with a laugh- Torquil is pretty funny). Torq corrected Jian on the name of his new band called Dead Child Star (Jian mistakenly called it "Death Child Star"). I hadn't heard anything about this new band! So I am now listening to it. I really enjoy Torquil's voice and I listen to Stars all the time so as soon as it began there was a sense of um, comfort, I suppose. The songs sound reminiscent Stars' album "Heart" and "Nightsongs". There are a lot of similarities between Stars and Dead Child Star (notice the "star" them? hmm). Upon simply listening to the songs of Dead Child Star, you would probably think some of them were from Stars- there is the same soft rock sound, some spoken word, synthesized instruments, lyrics with similar themes, and more. For a lover of Stars, this is amazing! Although my favourite album was "Set Yourself on Fire", so I wouldn't mind if they pursued a similar direction to that.

Here is an interesting note: Dead Child Star is a collaboration of bands under the Arts and Crafts label. Members from Apostle Of Hustle, Broken Social Scene, and Metric -and of course Torq from Stars are all coming together for this project. As well the (?) producer Minotaur Shock has joined in. (citation)

If you are following any of these bands you may know that Amy Millan (from Stars) also plays in Broken Social Scene with Emily Haines and James Shaw (both of Metric), among others, such as Lesley Feist (yes Feist). As well Emily Haines has "appeared" as a guest in few of Stars' songs. Getting confused about all this collaboration? Yes, it is quite a lot.

The thing that I find even more interesting is that I had no idea about the affiliation between Emily Haines and these Canadian Bands (Metric was formed in the States, but is now based in Canada) until I noticed that Emily reminded me of Amy Millan. So I looked it up. It turns out that they formed a short lived band together. I felt pretty awesome for noticing similarities! Or maybe it is just chance...

Ok, so this ends the insanely long post about Arts and Crafts Bands, Canadian music, and collaboration in the music industry! :) Enjoy your Saturday!

I've got a lovely bunch of crocuses...

There they are all standing in a row. Big ones, small ones, some the size of your head- ok. That's not true. But the first part works!

A sure sign of spring popped up in the last few days in the front yard.

First a howling blizzard woke us,
Then the rain came down to soak us,
And now before the eye can focus -
Crocus.
~Lilja Rogers

Schmap!

Oooh! This morning I discovered that one of my photos has been selected to appear in a free online travel book, called Schmap! Cool! The picture was on flickr, so that is how it was found. I was sent an email asking if I would be interested in letting them use my photo. Now the new version has been released, so there it is folks! :) To view the Munich guide, check out the widget I put in the side -> When you are on the Schloss Nymphenburg page you can click any photo to be taken to where it originally appears online.

So the last 24 hours have been a time of... um affirmation, I suppose. I received this today and last night a fashion writer approached me and asked to take my photo! :) Kinda neat! All in all its nice to know that what I do is noticed!

Simple White Bread

Mmmm! My bread is ready! But I have to wait a few minutes for it to cool, so I thought I'd pass on this recipe for simple, quick bread!

My recipe is a simplification of this recipe because I did not have everything on hand.

Simple White Bread

1 tablespoon Fast Rising Yeast
1/3 cup Honey
1 1/2 cup Warm Water
Mix. Let stand for 5-10 minutes.
Add 3-4 1/2 cups of Flour
Mix and then knead.
Add 4 tablespoons of olive oil
Knead.

Grease Pan. Put in warm oven (about 150 degrees F)
Let rise for 30 minutes.
Turn oven up to 375 degrees F
Cook for 30-40 minutes

I didn't have enough honey last time, so I looked for something else to put in. I tried about a tablespoon of molasses! It gave it a yellow tint, but I don't know how much it changed the flavour. This time, I had no honey, so I tried 2 tablespoons of brown sugar. I have now consumed the little loaf I made, and I can say that it wasn't sweet enough. But I do think that 1/3 cup of honey is too much. I'll change this once I find the perfect amount.

Also, the original recipe calls for 4 1/2 cups of flour, but I can only seem to knead in 3 cups. Maybe it works better with a mixer

Mike said he was going to make the original version tonight, but he was going to leave it for a few hours after rising and then cook it. He is supposed to let me know how that goes...

PS I usually make the same recipe for bread as my family (similar to this), but I left that recipe in Toronto for some silly reason.

The Man Who Tasted Shapes

Do you dream in colour? Ok, I've heard that one before. How about this: Do you hear music in colour? Can you taste shapes in your food? Weird? Perhaps to some. This is known as synaethesia; basically as "crossing of the senses". Nora Young talked about this on Spark today and it really struck a chord, so I decided to learn more.

Synaethesia is as common as 1 in 23 people. Apparently the most common form of synaethesia is colour associations with numbers or letters. I have to say that I have done this, but more so when I was younger. In my mind certain letters should be a certain colour. I didn't decide to colour a "P" in dark green. That is the way it should be. "M"s are pink, "K"s are purple, "A"s are yellow. That is just the way they are supposed to be. I noticed that some of the colours of letters could be traced to something. When we were little, all the kids in my family had a colour. I was pink, Ainsley (then called Kirsten) was purple, Scott was blue, etc. I see where I got the colours for M and K...

Upon analyzing other parts of synaethesia, I found that I could identify with a few of the types. But just in minor forms and I remember it being more common when I was a kid. It was a way to help me organize things. But anyone who tried to understand the logic, would surely fail. It only made sense in my own head.

I am interested in hearing more stories like this. Can anyone taste shapes? Do the days of the week take on different personalities? What about genders? Maybe this is where languages like French and Spanish got this gender idea... Perhaps!

I really encourage you to read more on Synaethesia - the Wikipedia article has a lot on it and it is so very interesting! The part that talks about the sounds of shapes made a lot of sense to me since I had thought about it before. There is also a book called The Man Who Tasted Shapes by Richard Cytowic who rediscovered synaethesia three decades ago. (If you listen to the episode of Spark, he is the man being interviewed). I now have some new books to add to my summer reading list!

Half Birthday

Today is my half birthday! :D

I don't know why, but I have always had a fascination with half birthdays. This is funny because I didn't care so much about my real birthday, but I would get pretty excited about my half birthday. One year, when I was about 10, I kept bugging my mom and reminding her about it coming up. I even did the countdown- everyday that got closer, I would announce it to my family.

Eventually the day came and my mom gave me a card (she never gives cards, she doesn't believe in them). But the card was ripped in half! It was even still in the envelope- she just ripped the whole thing in two. Inside the card there was some writing- but I couldn't read it all since she wrote it before she ripped it. She said I would get the other half on my full birthday. But I never did. hmmm...

So if you don't get what a half birthday is, it is simply six months after your real birthday. So take your birth month and count six after. And of course, it will fall on the same day of your birth date.

What I always found amusing as a kid was that my sister Ainsley only gets a half birthday on leap years. She was born on August 29th... It was funny to me.

Bitter Heart

You may remember, about a month ago, I blogged about some of my favourite YouTube musicians. Well, now Zee Avi's single has been released! Its called Bitter Heart, have a listen. :) Her self-title debut album comes out on May 19th, for those with an interest.

As well, Microsoft has come out with a new msn for mac! Woo! I'm hoping this will be at least 10 times better than what came before. It caused quite a lot of grief!

THE 4 Chords

This morning youtube recommended a video for me called The Axis of Awesome 4 Chords.

After watching that I found sooo many songs that I love! A lot of songs I've heard on the radio growing up, but never knew the name of the band or song. So I was very happy to see this -particularly for that reason!

One of those songs is "High" by Lighthouse Family- I love this song so much! It is so full of emotion.

Some of the other songs on the video that I really enjoy:

• U2- "With or Without You"
• Crowded House- "Fall at Your Feet"
• Men at Work- "Down Under"
• A-Ha- "Take on Me"
  
• Eagle Eye Cherry- "Save Tonight"
  
• Toto- "Africa"
  
• One Republic- "Apologize"
  
• Five for Fighting- "Superman"
  

Must Read After My Death

I don't think words are necessary for this. Simply watch and you will see.

Lunch today!

I made some very colourful food today... And it was very tasty too!
(Sorry, the photo is a little blurry)

If you'd like to make this too here is what you do: (Almost everything is approximate- I don't always measure)

Couscous:

1. Pour 1/4 cup of water into a small pot
2. Add 2 pinches of curry powder, a pinch of cayenne pepper, and a 1/2 tablepoon of butter
3. Once the water has boiled add 1/4 cup of couscous
   
4. Stir, cover and reduce heat to minimum.
5. Check it in about 3 minutes. You may need to take it right off the heat if it is getting dry.

Veggies:

1. Put a bit of oil in a pan with some water.
   
2. Cook mixed veggies over medium heat (I used green beans, banana peppers, carrots, spinach, tomatoes...)

Pour couscous on plate, then veggies, then top with Balkan Yogurt or Sour Cream and sprinkle with shredded cheese.

Bon Appetit!

Note: The amount of cayenne pepper I put in is barely noticeable. But my baby-like tongue enjoys just a tiny bit of spice! :P

UNESCO World Heritage Site Checklist

This was begun when I couldn't sleep the other night (ok, make that early morning). I was looking at the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and I thought I'd take a look and see how many I could check off! It turns out that there are some I didn't expect on the list! Here are the places I've been to:

1. Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada
2. Rideau Canal, Ottawa, Canada
3. Archaeological Monuments Zone of Xochicalco, Morelos, Mexico
4. Escorial Monastery and Site of the El Escorial, Madrid, Spain
5. Venice, Italy
6. Historic Centre of Vienna, Austria
   

It's a start anyway! As I was browsing the list, I thought of putting up the places I really want to see! Here are a few (with links to the UNESCO website):

The Kasbah of Algiers, Algeria
The Medina of Marrakesh, Morocco
The City of Luxembourg, Luxembourg (I've just always had a fascination with Luxembourg ever since I found it on the map when I was a kid.)
Machu Picchu, Peru
Pre-Hispanic City of Chichen-Itza, Mexico

I am really interested in the Arab influence in parts of the world that are no longer Arab countries. But I am also interested in the Arab world itself. Don't know why... Actually, I think I've figured it out just now; I think it's mainly the architecture. I especially liked Spain because of my love of Mexico and then this influence of the Moors. But now I am wishing to travel more in part, so I can see more of that architecture. I reeeeally want to go to Morocco and Algeria now! Although that probably won't happen until at the very least next summer. But this will be one of my next trips... Whenever that is.