keepin' it (sur)real

i'm talking to two friends on messenger right now, one in japan, one in switzerland. i wrote the last entry more or less for one in london.

and here i am in canada.

cotdamn, sometimes this world is surreal.

the week in music

andre rieu and his orchestra of goofs - it was a fun show. he's from holland, and he's a goof himself. the show was geared towards the 60+ crowd, without a doubt, but that was perfect considering that my date (she's my neighbour, actually) is well into her 70's. maybe even the 80's, i can't quite recall... they did play some classic waltzes, and some other classic pieces as well, and any time dozens of old couples break out into spontaneous ballroom dancing in the aisles, you know you're in the thick of it. a highlight of the evening was definitely the release of thousands of balloons from the roof of the rexall, and the half an hour of older folks playing balloon volleyball afterwards. i swear, i've never seen so many happy seniors in one place in all my life. it was awesome.

kid koala - tonight at the powerplant. it was great. nothing will ever match the show that g and i were lucky enough to see a few years back (and i mean that, in my lifetime, for me it may never be matched), but any time you get to see kid koala perform, you're lucky. he rocked the set on 4 turntables, giving a one-man band performance that the skratch picklz themselves would have been awed by. moon river was played, and the evening was enjoyed. and i even had shortcake there. it could only have been better with some g as well.

and now to bed.
jh..

my new love

both inspired and facilitated by shiv, my former amour for lomo-like photo things has found new life in Holga. she's kind of big, strangely featherlight for her size, rather cheap, equably fragile, and yet brilliant. well, i hope brilliant. i've shot two 6x6 rolls of color-neg 120 so far, so we'll see when they're printed just what kind of beast she is.

it took me a full day after getting it before i took the camera entirely apart to really see how it works. then i spent the better part of tonight manually modifying apertures with a pocket knife and building 35mm adapters out of cardboard, foam, and glue. it's arts and crafts for photo-kids. modifying the focussing lens to squeeze an extra foot out of the near-end will be next.

don't get me wrong, though - she's good for some good times here and there, but she's no strudel. not by a long shot. nor a short shot. nor even a wide, macro, or bulb shot. not by any shot.

but do watch the photo blog over the next few weeks, hopefully i'll have some holga fun for your eyes.

oh, and if you like the decemberists, the new album is superfantastic.

harper and ambrose, a fine pair of jackasses.

our (unfortunately) conservative government unveiled their clean air act today. it's amazing, really, that this kid of fluff even attempts to pass for substance. is our population ignorant and americanized enough to let the government do whatever the hell they want, and in doing so show a complete and utter disregard for fact and for their accountability to the people of canada? how can a government claim to do something, then blatantly not do it in the face of facts and criticism from virtually everyone (save the ignorant, and the american government - though perhaps that's redundant), and still remain in power?

politicians are clearly never perfect, and rarely even close, but this makes it embarrassing to be canadian. who the hell votes idiots like this in? "made in canada" solutions? not when the conservatives hire the same wizards that the bush administration used to dupe the american people 6 years running.

anyway, read the cbc article on the "clean air" act here. "clean air" act - what a farce. a particularly poignant, and justified comment: "This notion that they're delivering anything real is ridiculous. They are deceiving Canadians by saying there's anything real in this [...] We've violated our international responsibilities. I don't take that lightly and I hope that no one else does."


the conservatives seem to want to conserve everything except for what's actually worth conserving. am i bitter? you bet. the last place i want to be living is the states, and things just keep heading that way.

thanks for nothing, iceland.

i should have studied more tonight (i did some, believe it or not), but instead i picked up one of the various instruments that i've been neglecting for months now and started to play. it's now several hours later and i'm done, and i'm satisfied. well, was satisfied.

i listened to a sigur ros song, reminded by a friend's blog, and i'm completely unsatisfied again. sometimes i like the music that i make, and i know that sometimes other people like it, too; but good god, hearing music that's truly amazing makes me wonder why i even try.

and i love it. it's one of the things that i'm truly thankful for: that people out there are making music good enough that it humbles me almost to the point of embarrassment.

as abstract as it sounds, sometimes i wish i could be music. if i'm lucky, maybe that's what happens after death. in addition to unlimited raspberry strudel, of course.

thanks for everything, iceland.
jh..

"like sitting in a car..."

i've gotten mad lazy on the blog tip lately. sorry to those who've been wondering. i've been spending (squandering?) my time on things like school, music, track, and of course strudel. yeah, you heard - strudel. if you ain't got, i suggest you get. but you can't have mine, dun. hells naw, i got mine locked down.

on the plus side, i'm nearly done a couple of songs, which means that if you're the kind to listen, then you've got some new coming your way.

with things shuffling around, and me losing another close friend to life abroad this coming month, i'm finding myself not only a bit out of sorts, but a bit out of plans as well. routine can be good, but as a particularly smart shortcake once said, if you're not moving forward, then you're moving backward.

so what do you do when you can't decide which way you're going? like sitting in a car and feeling like you're moving backwards, when it's really the other cars that are moving forwards. or is it both? thanks to einstein, who's really to say?


i'm too young to be missing the good old days.
jh..