oh procrastination

So I'm procrastinating an essay right now but in very educational ways...

I re-discovered the CBC Archives which is really an incredible collection of hundreds of clips from the network's past. I mean, you really can't find a site like this anywhere else on the internet. You're lucky to find clips from the past week on American sites and most of the time you have to pay, especially on CNN. I imagine the BBC probably (hopefully) has a similar site but I haven't gone to look for it yet.

The best thing that the CBC does is create pages dedicated to various historical issues. Being primarily interested in 60s culture, their pieces on Hippie Society are the most interesting. It's one thing to watch a documentary on the 60s but these are primary accounts of what it was really like. There's one clip (in the pot legislation section) I love which shows a typically stuffy journalist interviewing the owner of a head shop in Yokrville. It's hillarious to see how condescending the interviewer is. Seeing clips like this one makes me all idealistic and really wishing I was alive at that time. For more great 60s news see this interview with Mick and Brian from the Stones and this about John and Yoko's Montreal bed-in. If you want to pass time but not waste time, then the CBC archives are for you.

Well, back to "work", I guess...

radical ryan fantastic

get back to where you once belonged

OK

So the Super Bowl was last night. Let's face it, football sucks. They stop the play too much for any momentum to be gathered and half the time the play is stopped for commercials. I didn't watch much of the game last night, mostly because I didn't watch much football all year and unlike countless others, I wasn't looking for an excuse to get drunk and act like "men". The real highlight of last night was the half-time show, featuring none other than Paul McCartney! (Coincidentally, today marks the 41st anniversary of The Beatlea' arrival in America...)

What's that? Not a highlight? Right, that seems to be the consensus in the American media today in articles such as this and this. I don't understand how a 62-year old musician who can arguably rock harder than anyone in the mainstream a third his age can be called boring or "innocuous". Paul went out there and sang four of his hundreds of classic songs and because there wasn't a coreographed dance or some MTV bullshit. It's a shame, too, that so many young people probably saw the performance last night as old-fashioned or what not. This leads me to my next point...

I can never understand why enjoying old music has consistently been deemed to be "uncool". Well, maybe that needs a bit of clarification. It's quite "cool" to name drop certain bands (The Beatles, Floyd, Bowie, Doors, etc.) that you like but it's rare that you find someone who actually listens to these bands when they say they do. To me, it seems they know the "classic" albums that their favourite emo and indie bands mention and that's it. Newsflash: most of those artists listen to the whole catalogue (though why they can't seem to parlay their influences into good music is beyond me...). Yes, Dark Side is amazing but so is Atom Heart Mother (1970) and The Final Cut (1983). Sgt. Pepper might be one of the best albums of the past four decades but Band On The Run (Wings, 1973) has amazing moments too. I think if you're going to listen to these bands, it's very much worth it to look into their whole catalogue since they're so important in the musical landscape. Just a thought...

I think my point here is that I'm sick of being ridiculed for certain things I listen to. I listen to what I like, whenever it was made. I don't care. If that's what your criteria for good music is, I feel sorry for you. It just seems for me that a larger chunk of the music I like was made 25-40 years ago. I love early Bee Gees records, I think they're lyrically incredible. Why is that "lame"? I hate screaming so I think a band like Refused suck. I don't care about their lyrical content, I think they suck. Just my opinion. So why should I be attacked everytime I say that? I don't like it and I won't appreciate it if I don't like it. Unless everyone starts acknowledging that "I Started A Joke" is one of the saddest songs ever written.

Won't happen. And I don't care. I'll listen to what I want. You shut up about it.

Peace, love and fluffy bunnies...

radical ryan fantastic

testing...1, 2

So, after almost two years of having a LiveJournal, I've decided to somewhat abandon it and start one of these. I think this blog will mostly be about music, either music I like or dislike. So if you don't like heavily opinionated writing, this may not be for you. I'll probably also just give my take on life in general and what not. Hopefully this will be a bit more engaging than my journal which seemed to mostly just recount what I did during the day, who I saw, how much weed I smoked, etc. Boring stuff. Plus too many fifteen year old girls on that thing. On that note, I must begin packing to venture off to Toronto for the weekend. Expect a "real" post sometime soon as I'll be spending much time downtown which I'm sure will be full of lovely pretentious people!