The Ottawan

No Such Thing as Social Status

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:40:00 +0000

It's January 31st, 2012, and I haven't written anything this month and barely anything last month. I'd better get something down at least by now.

By the way, my holidays were only okay. Not great. They actually were the turning point for my relationship to go to hell (again, and for the final time, man I feel like an idiot) and the beginning of my year has been even less good, but it's going to get better (again).

This subject - social status - has been something at the back of my mind for awhile now, ever since I mailed off a Christmas and Birthday gift to my then-girl friend, who basically lives in a mansion. I expected that, and as such wasn't prone to any inferiority complex like in the past (not again, hah), but that's where the subject came up.

In my opinion, there is no such thing as social status at all. Rather, my perspective is that 'social status' is a mere product of some of the more sad and awful aspects of human nature.

Take someone who is a CEO. He's a bachelor with a high income and lives alone, except when entertaining neighbours or women. He lives in an affluent community built by a well-off developer of moderate-sized luxury homes. There's even a man-made lake, and the homes bordering it have their own private docks.

He has a maid and cookers and essentially a staff that cleans and maintains the house.

To look at that realistically, one person in a huge house with a paid staff - there is no merit in it. No fiscal merit or life style merit. Almost every single aspect of that kind of living is a 'want' and not a 'need.'

The only merit in something like that is to give him pride and arrogance, and the satisfaction of making everyone else not in his position envious. To give him a sense of eliteness, of imposing, proud demeanor.

Of course, being pampered and comfortable has something to do with it, but not really that much.

I think of my ex (rather, my ex-ex-ex) and her community and house: Huge, wide driveways, a private lake, gigantic houses, everything. I'm not going to complain or outline everything about that, but to have about three people living in such a large building - why not just buy an entire skyscraper? I'm sure you have the money for it.

In the event that I get good fortune in life, I wouldn't expunge myself like that. I'd only have a large house if I had a cheaper-by-the-dozen situation with twelve kids (they lived in a huge house in that movie too, but they needed it). I'm sure anyone who reads this would tell me I'm wrong, that as soon as I had the money, I'd be out buying cars and expensive photography equipment and a large dwelling, but no one who reads this knows me that well. Most of my money would sit in the bank or be donated now and then.

Too many people measure their happiness by how much money they have, or how popular they are. Life isn't like that, happiness isn't fuelled by that. Forget about social status. Rejoice in what you have. If you don't have or worry about the envi of others, they'll envy you for not even caring. Happiness is measured by what you truly enjoy in life, what keeps you going, what drives you, what you are passionate about, and in turn that's the purpose of life: To relax, enjoy it, and do what you want to do in the time that you have.

For those who think having the best of everything and ensuring everyone else notices that, I could care less about your private dock, your boat, several cars, etc. etc. etc. When you don't worry about how much better or worse others are around you, when you don't compare yourself, you end up only focusing on yourself and your own inherent greatness, and that's what matters. That's the true spirit of things.

Justin C.

Calling Cards

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 05:08:00 +0000

Here comes the time for a new review on a song - and it's a Madness one.

The song 'Calling Cards' is an interesting little album track from their album 'Presents the Rise and Fall.' I first heard it years ago when I acquired a branded 'best of' CD under the '20th Century Masters' name. I'd never heard the song before prior to that, and why it was included on that CD (as it's not on most of their 'best of' or compilation discography) I don't particularly know. I'd approach the 20th Century brand in finding the answer, they put it together...

It opens with a sort of urgency. Do-do-dum...do-do-dum...as the piano gets more high-pitched and insistent. It's an easy-paced song that sounds similar to a sales or job pitch.

I don't listen to it much anymore, and it's not a remarkable song, but it's kind of funny in retrospect and does the job in getting the message across, what it's all about.

According to Lee Thompson on the old Madness website (before it was revamped and re-launched and the 'What's it all about?' pages on the songs disappeared) it was about "credit card fraudulency." He'd also said it 'goes hand in hand with 'Are you Coming (With Me)' in some ways.' Seeing as that song is about trying to pull someone out of a rut and waste due to drug addiction, that could work.

The lyrics tell the story from a fraudster's point of view. It's like he's giving you a pitch to come and work for or with him. It accentuates secrecy and intentional law-breaking, pointing out the 'firm of naughty boys' and having nothing to do 'with the constitution.' It also seems to be talking about the success and growth of such a corrupt company, i.e., "my twins work Brighton on a sunny day, they cover town with a shake of a hand" and "I need you and your returns to help build my company." Halfway through, and twice, the names of many banks are shouted out, such as the Midland Bank, Peoples' Bank, Bank of Scotland, etc. etc....followed by serious, pointed laughing.

It basically talks of working for a lot of money in a dirty, corrupt way, and it's very cheery and convincing.

I tend to enjoy the piano the most in the song. It sounds kind of dark but also cheery and poignant at the same time. The music is professional and well-executed as usual, and I find the focus of the song interesting...you don't see that very often, I think. It's one of the things about this band: Their songs focus on so many things, they're very well-rounded. Most bands talk about love and loss and politics, which is cool but can get too predictive and monotonous. Of course Madness have done the same many times, but I can still find a song they wrote for almost every occasion, and fit their lyrics into what I'm going through at any given time.

What most people fail to realize or look at is that beneath all that nutty humor, that party-like sound, there's a dark seriousness that points out the maturity and world-view of the band. The best example of this is their song (and only #1 hit) 'House of Fun.' Anyone listening to it right away, without much interest or real focus, would decide that it's a loony, almost kid-oriented circus/party song. It's joyful and ebullient, bright and honky-tonk. Even the lyrics sound fun and innocent. But anyone who knows the deepness of a Madness song and knows to listen to the lyrics, anyone who gave the band real thought and made the effort to focus and listen closely instead of writing them off as a silly nutty outfit would see that it's about a kid on his 16th birthday attempting to purchase condoms (age of consent is 16 in Britain) but is having trouble due to using party paraphernalia slang terms, confusing the chemist (pharmacist). That's where the lyric "This is a chemist, not a joke shop" comes from. And that's a serious topic that can be analyzed and discussed.

But going back to 'Calling Cards,' it's the same thing. I think the song's a pretty good one - not great, not something I'd want to listen to every day or even every week, but a good effort and well-written lyrics. The piano is the centrepiece of that number.

Music: B
Lyrics: A-

The only version on YouTube is the 'R1 Studio Session.' It's not the proper song and it doesn't have the laughing in the middle, but it's essentially the same thing, only a demo.

Not bad, not great, but good. I'd give it a listen - it's interesting.

Justin C.

My Rise out of Pessimism

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 06:18:00 +0000

It's late December and I'm back here, writing again.

For this year, I haven't really written much going past the summer or so. Sometimes things come to my head but I'm not particularly that interested or up for writing it all down in depth on here.

But this time something has piqued my interest to the point I think it should be written down in depth, so here I am.

Recently I've come to realize how happily I respond to certain types of music because the synesthetic personality or temperament I derive from the sound makes me think of myself - because it's pessimistic.

Since I was around eleven or twelve, perhaps a little later, I started to develop this kind of personality. That's the best I can judge. I've been told that I was a happy child who was full of positivity and wouldn't let things get me down. I think I started to change at the age of eleven because that was the entrance into my teenage years, and middle school, which is where it all started to go downhill.

Also, I was diagnosed with Asperger's at the age of 12, so from then I knew I was different and perhaps limited in certain ways, certainly socially, and I was heading into my realization of the way people my age talk and socialize, as well as the fact I could not relate a single way to any of it.

Middle school was fraught with confusion; I only had one proper friend who was struggling to be mature and in line when he hung out with me, as well as the opposite, and very silly, with his old friend from elementary school who was reunited with him in this class. A lot of confused and pent-up anger was unleashed at me from him, insults and all, and so 7th grade was full of that. Then 8th grade was spent being ostracized from the class while a hostile kid targeted me to bully. High school didn't have much surprises for me; I spent it either alone, or getting on much easier with my teachers, particularly ones in the Canadian/World Studies Department, or trying awkwardly and failing to fit in with people in the music department because two friendly people I managed to open up to on the bus hung out there.

I probably made the full, point of no return switch into my negativity at the age of sixteen, when who I thought was genuinely friendly to me explained very bluntly in an e-mail that it was all out of sympathy and tolerance that he, well, permitted me to haplessly talk to him all the time. I struggled with a genuine friendship with that person until the end of grade 12, and all pointlessly.

That's the idea of how I came to generally have a negative personality; my self-esteem fluctuates between average to low, never high. I am not someone who is extremely happy or joyful, and very little can make me such, very little indeed.

What I'm focusing on in this post, though, is how happy I am to be like this. It's something I've come to realize, though a few things. To explain it in depth using a song as an example, here:

Back in May, I figured out this chorus I'd gone head-over-heels for as 'Ah! Leah!' by an artist named Donnie Iris. What had originally pulled me into the song, though, was the part of the chorus in which the bass guitar and everything else starts playing G#, and the voices, all of them, start saying the 'Le' syllable in Leah.
I heard that, and instantly saw sudden pessimism, negativity, cynicism, and annoyance. And, as I'd heard it for the first time on the radio at SFY, in that environment with people like my friend Brent around, I instantly related it to my annoyance or sudden coldness towards a situation in which Brent would start to annoy me for the fun of it.
The transition and sound basically heralded my annoyance at Brent sometimes in those situations, then and there. And that's why I loved it, and desperately wanted to hear the whole thing.

Even now, if I listen to the song and change the pitch, or slow it down/speed it up, I feel a burst of happiness and contentment, and I even giggle, when I hear that part of the chorus. I don't necessarily relate it to Brent but I love hearing that because I instantly see my personality and I love hearing sounds that give me that. I love hearing things that synesthetically give me pessimism and negativity.

Another example is the A minor chord. Played normally I see the same thing - negativity and pessimism, myself. Played wherein the A key is played with the left hand thumb higher up instead of the second-last finger lower down, and I get cynicism and like I feel unconvinced, and unsure.

Me.

Why do I feel very happy when I hear stuff like that? Is it because I like to hear stuff that makes me see myself? Is it because I like hearing my personality mirrored in music or sound? Or is it because I enjoy looking down at myself, have a need to see myself in such a negative light? Could it be that I enjoy being negative or pessimistic, or that I am proud to feel that way?

It almost turns into a psychological issue.

It's an interesting question that I am unsure how to answer. I think that I like hearing music that I respond to by seeing myself in personality, but I don't know if I am so inclined to be so pessimistic to the point that I enjoy being that way. I do know that I tend to take every single thing about myself that's negative and only focus on that, while discounting anything I contribute or anything I'm good at completely. I do know that I just find negative after negative and heap one on after the other. And I do know that instead of doing anything about my well-known faults in which I have much insight in, despite all that I do know, I just wallow in it intentionally without pursuing any interest in changing it, which just leads me to heap that on as just another negative about myself.

This topic is very interesting. I just don't know where to go with it.

Wondering and pondering and thinking and writing about this will not get me anywhere further than I've gone, so I'll leave it there.

Justin C.

The Deal with Children

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 05:02:00 +0000

I've thought about writing something like this for a short while now. It's just an idea that popped into my head. Good thing I appropriately used a 'p' and not an 'o' in that word.

I thought about it for awhile, and then I discovered something about someone today that gave me my proper motivation. I won't say what it was that I discovered, but the nature of this post will make my reasoning become obvious.

I must ask this: Why the heck do we go through the trouble with having children, at all?

Why do we have to take on such a huge responsibility? Why do we have to put our wives or partners through such a difficult, long, laborious task? Why do we, at some point in our early lives, decide to basically devote the rest of our formative years to parenting young children, and then rambunctious teenagers?

Why do we spend a large chunk of our money dealing with this? Why do we give us a reason to endure the temper tantrums, the messes, the trials and tribulations of youth, and most importantly, the task of raising them properly, honorably and productively? That is a life's worth of hard work.

Why?

I think I know exactly why: Because the gift of life is the most beautiful thing to create. Because it is, while indeed energy-draining, rewarding in about a billion ways. Because to hear a baby's laughter, to glimpse a child's wonder and innocence, to guide them through teenage drama and ultimately to further on your knowledge and family is a beautiful, wonderful, life-changing thing.
I've never had children. I probably won't for a while yet. But I definitely, truly want to have children. To teach them, to father them, to guide them and to raise them. When you have a child, a part of you lives on. When you have a child, you are given the huge responsibility to raise them to be good, honorable people. The idea of having a son or daughter, of giving him or her love and support, of teaching them my wisdom, of providing for them and sheltering them, enamors me.

It's why parents become parents. They want to give their offspring the gift of love, knowledge, family, and growth. They want to have a part of them live on and make them proud and happy.

I want to be the best candidate for that. Definitely. Because that's what I was put on this earth to do: to give others fulfillment, care, love and happiness.

Justin C.

Hiatus?

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 00:44:00 +0000

Since September, I have only written maybe four or five things.

I have no idea why I have a lack of interest in writing this anymore; I always wanted to continue it onwards as long as possible...I like to think that this is a documentary of my thoughts/feelings over a long period of time as I grow.

The only reason I can think of for this lack of writing is the fact that I simply have lost interest. Ideas don't come to my mind, or at least ideas that I think are worth writing down don't materialize. If I wrote any news, it would be that I got a cell phone, passed my road test and got a G2, experienced a re-connection (with whom I won't bother mentioning/saying) and am doing relatively well in school.

For my future, I hope to continue school and finish it with good marks and a feeling of accomplishment. I might do a bit of travelling next year...go visit my family friend, James, in annoying Calgary. We'll see.

As for now, there are no fun photo-related things (I lost my Mac hard drive and every single thing on it) no fun stuff I thought of, no creativity I feel like putting down here, no big news I want to put online, and nothing worth it right now to write about.

I hope this doesn't devolve back to what it was like in 2008-09, that winter where I barely wrote anything...but who knows. Christmas is coming up soon. Maybe something will happen there.

As for now, I might as well announce a (hopefully temporary and brief) hiatus.
Sorry.

Justin C.

You Can Call Me Al

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 17:02:00 +0000

It's been almost an entire month since I hit the 'new post' button. Unusual for me to be posting here, eh? I finally found something interesting to write about, and of all things, it's a review of a song I came upon.

Years ago, probably 2005, Bob FM had a TV clone of itself in where it played music videos of the very songs the station broadcasts (80s, 90s, whatever). I don't think there is a Bob TV anymore, but there was - and it wasn't a channel, but rather just a programming block.

I was particularly interested in it because, other than just generally liking songs and music videos from the 80s with enthusiasm, I was hoping for anything by Madness to come on there (I write that sentence despite anyone knowing me having come up with that conclusion as soon as I wrote 'other than just generally liking...'). Madness didn't show up on there, but a few other videos - including ones by Aha!, the Go-Go's (where I first heard of them, probably, probably not) and Paul Simon - showed up.

It was the Paul Simon one that I found both intriguing and kind of pointless.

At the time, I didn't really notice who was singing or what happened. Instead, two people sat in chairs, one singing and the other looking on, kind of bored. The bored guy would perform instrumental solos from time to time though.

The only thing, prior to my coming back to it last night, that I could remember was "if you could be my bodyguard."

Last night I somehow found myself reading up on Chevy Chase on Wikipedia. Part of me wanted to see how he came to look so different between the late '70s and what I see of him now on Community (he doesn't look the same to me at all for some reason, maybe it's the glasses).

I eventually came to a bit in which he appeared in a music video with Paul Simon called 'You can Call Me Al.' I don't know how that music video came back to mind, but it rung a bell so I went straight to the Wikipedia article on that, read the short description of the music video, and immediately went to it on Youtube.

Bingo.

It was kind of funny seeing that thing again...probably more funny than the first time with my better knowledge of it. The song has a lot of lyrics that tell more of a story than just a verse-chorus-type thing. No repetition other than in the chorus. When I saw it the first time I thought it was more of a talk. It makes the song sound more diverse, in lyrics than in music, though the music is upbeat and fun to listen to as well. It has a lot of African influence, which I like because I grew up with a minor appreciation in African music; my father only really played it when I was with him as a younger child, so I kind of grew up with it.

As for the music video itself, the guy singing is actually Chevy Chase, while Simon sits there with a bored expression on his face, unless he has to get up to deal with random instruments. He gets up to leave several times, not always to grab a conga drum but just to disappear and then come back later. In the beginning, they enter the room together with difficulty (they can't fit through the doorway together) sit down in chairs oriented almost like it's a talk-show, and shake hands. Paul Simon opens his mouth, but before he can start at all, Chase begins over him with an upbeat enthusiasm, complete with reacting facial expressions and hand gestures. Simon is left to sit there looking at the camera like he has no real purpose there, other than the mutter the bass voice with Chase during the chorus and to sometimes get up to play the tin whistle.

What I find interesting is how much the video and song reminds me of James, the guy in Calgary I had fun with as a child with my father (Simon looks a little like him to me, but with flatter hair) and the music itself. What I find even more interesting is how Simon reacts and looks exactly like me in expression and purposeless. I've been spoken over many times while talking to more than one person (in fact that's normal in those situations for me) and the disinterested look on Simon's face mirrors my own disinterested look when I feel cast aside (not uncommon with me either) or when I can't seem to get anywhere in social situations with, again, more than one person. I get bored and annoyed, so I look like that. Perhaps I'll get up and leave and then come back. If I were in that exact situation, where another guy hi-jacks my spot, I'd react in exactly the same way (and I have in the past).

The music, again, brings back some childhood sounds and genres and things, just the sound of it, and that's what I like about it. The lyrics tell a good story too, and the song has a lot of little elements to it - like the conga drum and the tin whistle - that make it stand out.
Chevy Chase does a great job acting out the lyrics. He also casually has a glass of water before letting it smash on the floor.

One more thing I like about the video is just how simplistic and mundane it is - two guys sitting in front of a camera, one singing in good nature while the other sits there staring glumly or disappearing, only to return later with a bass guitar and conga drum. What a fun idea to film! No surprises - just basic, talk show-like sitting and staring/singing.

Oh what fun that was.
Music: A-
Lyrics: B+

You can call me Justin C.

Lack of Context - What Happens?

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 03:42:00 +0000

Sometimes, just for fun, I will make a statement that is vague and lacks any context whatsoever.

Why? Because it can be funny when people assume crazy or unusual things, or assume what anyone assumes based on certain active words. I do this on Facebook often.

For instance, I once said something like "the date is set." In result several people commented or liked my post, saying what I should do on the date. They all assumed that I was going on a first date or something.

No, I was just saying that I'd figured out the date of a gig I was invited to come and see.

Back in late August, I wrote that "there's this annoying crayon at work." I'd further mention my wishes to manhandle it.

Sound unusual? I find the way it sounds quite funny actually.

No one commented on that status by the way. They probably didn't get it and chose not to comment or ask me what I meant. I tried bringing it up in an online chat with a friend, and it led to him wondering why its color had anything to do with how I feel (I'd brought up the color (yellow) of the crayon as a side-note) and then finished by asking if the crayon reminded me of someone.
My answer was a question asking why or how a wax artist's tool would remind me of anyone, and a finishing statement that it reminds me of coloring.

In context, the crayon I was complaining about was a five-foot cardboard display situated awkwardly at the corner of a shelf near the entrance of the Wal-Mart I work at, and the reason for it being there was to promote the back-to-school sales the store was having, as well as contain school supply lists for students of Longfields-Davidson Heights Secondary School. Because it was in an awkward position, pulling big pallets of boxes by often meant I would almost hit or knock the crayon display aside or at least move it.

Simply put, the stupid crayon was in the way. And it was yellow.

It has since disappeared. But it's one of those quirks of mine - stating something that lacks context. Everyone will go ahead and assume crazy theories to what it means whether they comment or not. In the same chat I was having, I'd also pointed out the stupid boxes that I pass by that I'd rather punch because they stare at me due to the annoying name on them (Brookside). My friend had gotten the 'reminds you of someone' idea backwards with the crayon side of it.

I don't have to deal with belts tomorrow. And by that, I mean I don't have to deal with the conveyor belts at work because there's no truck on Sundays.

(That unusual bearded bloke) Justin C.

Staged

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 04:20:00 +0000

I haven't written anything much lately, and I have nothing much in mind to write, so I'm just going to post this visual thing instead:

I would say it's the most complicated, advanced, and ambitious staged photograph I've taken. I had to arrange all the instruments, all the clothing, and all the props - tripods, amp, guitar case, etc....

My idea stemmed from the assignment I had this week of taking a photo of something from a new perspective. It's a challenge I give myself when I'm taking a photo of something that is photographed very often. So I decided to focus on my backyard - which has been photographed by me for six years now.

I also liked the idea of photographing a line up of tripods and calling it 'March of the Swivelheads' (a b-side by the English Beat). This idea collided with the assignment focus, and then it changed.

It went from a line up of tripods to a line up of tripods including a line up of Justins. Then it turned into a mixed up photo of tripods and myself, multiplied in different poses around them. Finally, I came up with the idea of an entire band of Justins performing...and then the idea of such a band actually performing to film a music video.
Then the bit where the lead singer and director are arguing hit me. And there you have it.

I have six tripods. I could arrange them around the band and include them in the shot to showcase the film setup of the camera crew filming the musicians.

I lugged my entire drum set upstairs from the basement, as well as my bass guitar and amp, and keyboard. I used two stools to support it. I used the garden chair and table as the director's chair. My camera was the first thing I set up, then I positioned the tripods. The last thing I set up was the other camcorders atop the three tripods. I didn't really keep track of time, but I am sure it took almost forty-five minutes to set things up.

I arranged multiple articles of clothing for each character to wear. The first shot I took of myself was of me standing against the fence in the background, wearing the clothes I originally wore, which is the base image every other character is super-imposed on (as it's the most sunny and has the least clouds). I'd remove myself from the image later and edit it so that only the upper half of me appeared over the fence; that version of me is watching the chaos from next door.

Wearing different clothes for each character, I individually photographed myself on drums, keyboards, bass, guitar, recorder (I don't have a saxophone) and lead singer, arguing.

I tried to dress according to what character would most likely wear. I made the lead singer the most casual-leisurely, the recorder-er the most classy with the dress shirt, and the director the most slouchy in a wrinkled 'University of Arizona' shirt. The drummer and director are wearing the same shorts since you can't really see much of the drummer. The crew is wearing the most casual, comfortable clothing on the job. The young assistant who is checking the time and handling the director's drink I emphasized his youth and freshness by putting on my grade nine day shirt and wearing light summer shorts.

Unfortunately some props I used are hidden. There's a third tripod and camera behind the lead singer, and there's a script book lying on the table that is hidden by the director (I used my photo portfolio for that). I didn't position myself as the recorder player very well because I hide most of the drum set - it's not that small but both of me are making it seem almost non-existent or redundant.

The 'script' the director is holding is the original papers that contain my diagnosis for Asperger's Syndrome from eight years ago.

I'm playing a D major chord on the piano.

There's a running gag in which every one of me is bare-foot. The fact is that I didn't have that many different pairs of shoes (there are ten of me) so it was just simpler to go bare-foot - and it's a peculiarity of the image that's interesting or makes it different.

All in all I'm very impressed and happy with my efforts. I've never multiplied myself ten times before, or assumed so many different characters. I was willing to make it even more complicated if I had more equipment (like camera/sound equipment for the crew in the photo) but it's perfectly fine as it is now. The best thing about it is that it easily tells a story, realistically and naturally. All the band members are appropriately looking towards the lead singer who is adamantly standing his ground against the director. The idea is that the singer wants to improvise while the director wants to stick rigidly to the script. Some of the characters look embarrassed or disinterested in the dispute, or impatient. The young assistant is checking his watch. I originally intended the director to be the only one who wore a watch, but I forgot until I was photographing the assistant, so I worked the watch into that character. I also originally had the idea of a crew member yawning as he stands in idle, though that didn't get realized.

It's a great image that's very well executed. The only problems that annoy me is the fact I wanted a clear blue sky (no clouds) to saturate heavily, and I forgot to erase the color differences in the grass around the cameraman at the right edge of the photo. And the drummer could be seen better (you barely see his face, hands and one leg).

It's my most ambitious, complicated, and advanced staged photo. Unfortunately, though, it's not necessarily a new perspective on my backyard as it is just my backyard populated by instruments, props, and multiplied Justins dressed differently. Some wearing glasses and some not. I ended up taking different images for that assignment.

But it's still pretty cool and fun to look at.

Justin C.

The Name Card

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 20:46:00 +0000

Yesterday, at noon, I sat down in front of a tall, lean studio photographer, held up a sign with my name printed on it, and had my photo taken.
It was a similar experience to the old mugshots I took every year in school, except it was more professional, and in school I never held a sign up with my name on it.

Since Tuesday I've been busing to Baseline Station, crossing the new plaza, entering the doors of the new trades building, walking up to the second floor, crossing over Woodroffe via the pedestrian bridge, traversing the B building, into the C building, and into my photography classes.

For one thing, it is such a faster route than ever before. When I began Prof. Writing, I started the year they tore down the old station, and began constructing the trades building. Most of my classes had either been in the A building, or the P building. When the site of the old station was blocked off for tearing it down and preparing it as a construction site, I had to walk all the way around it, cross Woodroffe on the other side of the intersection, eventually get to the A building, and make a long journey all the way to the P building if class was there. In Winter, early in the morning, that wasn't that fun.

The pedestrian bridge is also helpful in avoiding the strikers that use the intersection of College and Woodroffe as a picket line.

I entered the room on Tuesday morning and found it almost completely full of people. Only one or two seats were left. They all looked my age. One thing I was thinking was that I'd enter a room full of eighteen-year-olds, some still even seventeen. After all, I'm restarting college the year the few grade tens I knew graduated. But instead, to my surprise and mild delight, quite a bit were my age, a year younger, or even older. Only a couple are fresh out of high school.

I spent that day unusually making a lot of acquaintances. People weren't that difficult to talk to. I spent lunch sitting at a table with a majority of them. I spent the large amount of time created when communications ended early with them in the courtyard. I know a lot of them by sight now.

Other than a certain person who makes my day, my classes, despite the only things we've done being introductions and course outlines, etc., are looking pretty fun. I've got my Mac, which was expensive, and my 7D camera - not that far from the 5D I've always wanted - was also just over two-thousand, but I paid for both myself. Hard work at Wal-Mart all summer worked out for me there. Yesterday I had photographic theory, though the quiz we did and the PowerPoint the prof. did was essentially what I learned in high school. Not hard at all.

I received (free as the college paid for it) Adobe CS5 Masterclass - the most recent Adobe Creative Suite, and the edition that has absolutely every single Adobe software in Post-production, which is looking fun, and the tour of the studios was cool too.

"That viewing booth is for viewing your prints," the prof. said at one point while in the printing room.
"Because of the light temperature," I ventured.
"Yes, because of the light temperature," he confirmed.

The only thing I'm not looking forward to at all is Communications. I have the exact same teacher, which I think is nuts, from when I was in Prof. Writing. Fortunately, we aren't using that book this time around. The course is now hybrid (half taught online) as well as most of the rest of my courses, and seems more or less not nearly as tedious or complicated. I'm putting all my attention into it this time to ensure I have no trouble. For one thing I'm keeping my eye on the Blackboard site the college uses very regularly now, as well as the e-mail service, which I hardly looked at at all during Prof. Writing.

There are several times more people than before. Each schedule and class in the program is divided into class groups. When I was in Prof. Writing, there were about two groups. Around twenty people, or less, would on average be in my classes.
The photography program has about seven different groups, of which total up to about eighty students.

You can see why everyone's photograph was taken yesterday. It's for the several professors to be able to learn our names easily.

I'm really enjoying it so far. I have Fridays off, though, so I have nothing to do unless I work. I still work like usual, except for Tuesdays. I can't work on that day due to my classes going until five in the afternoon. Any other day is fine though.

It's just been a week. The experience is great. I can't wait for next week. My sleeping pattern is back to normal so I am actually waking up in the morning and not at lunch time. Yesterday I was up at 6a.m. The people are fun and nice and have something in common with me, although many are interested in wedding photography. I think I'm the only one (in my group at least) who is primarily interested in documentary photography, posterity, that sort of thing. I'm still getting used to working on a Mac platform, though everything will come. I think I'm going to have a really good semester.

Oh, and the Canon 7D is an amazing camera. It can shoot HD videos as well, which means I can play with the effects of my lenses, focusing, short depth of field, etc. etc.

I'll finish this off with a time-lapse I found myself unwittingly a part of. This is the photography exhibition back in April, which I attended out of interest. You can see me in the orange shirt and blue jeans, particularly moving from chair to chair situated at the close end of the displays.

Justin C.

'Summer Morning'

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 02:53:00 +0000

I wake up, it's hot

It's bright, it's day, it's blue, it's clear

There's nothing happening as usual

I wait, it's early, it's late

The sun's in the right place to me either way

I spent this morning playing my guitar, then my organ

Drums come too, bass especially

What else to avoid the boredom

It's a summer morning, everything's fresh

The grass is green, the skies are blue

I go out and jam, my test

Flowers open up, clouds float about

I wait for her to come and scout

She's pretty and perfect

We're happy and fit-less

I'd by lying if I didn't play my organ to her

It's summer, no bummer

it's morning, full glory

I jam and she listens

We play and there's kisses

It's a summer morning, everything's fresh

The grass is green, the skies are blue

I go out and jam, no jest and everything's cool

June and July, those are the times

From 9am to 11am, those are the moments

I'm a morning person

And no doubt musically inclined

I've got my girl, I've got my bass

Why didn't I rhyme in that place?

Everything's cool, everything's new

The sun is in the right place to me

Even the morning dew

It's a summer morning, everything's fresh

The grass is blue, the skies are green?

I go out and jam, indeed that's my test

I wake up, it's hot

It's bright, it's day, it's blue, it's clear

Everything's happening as usual

It's early, never late, the sun is here

I see my girl, and the world

...yeah, it's perfect

---

I wrote this in a note on Facebook on July 16th of this year. I have no idea why I did not post it here. Looking at my lyrics again...it's pretty well-written. And tells a nice, fun, happy story.

I wrote it after drawing inspiration from an organ melody, writing my own rhythm into it, composing a guitar part and bass line, and drum beat. The lyrics were written afterwards.

Because I've written just about every aspect of this song from all angles, each instrument except for any extra finishing touches I'd add like a sax or something, or extra guitar, whatever, I'm going to review my own song. Even though I haven't the proper means to record it, or a band or session players to produce it with.

I'm going to look at it as if I'd just discovered it elsewhere, and wasn't my song:

I found I really like this song due to the upbeat, bright tune to it. It sounds like a fusion of ska and reggae, or something similar. Actually I'd put it as sounding similar to the Madness album track 'Day on the Town.' A simple, constant, rhythmic beat drives the song, with subtle rimclicks on the edge of the snare instead of loud strikes. It makes it sound laid back to me, easy, and fun.

The organ is the best part. The lyrics really work off of what I see in the organ...I see a boring, lazy summer morning, as well as the prettiest girl ever. And that seems to be exactly what the lyrics are about.

The composer, an outfit calling themselves 'The Locals' are actually from here, and I'm extremely gratified that Ottawa can produce such a nice band...local bands are not something I listen to usually at all, since there aren't really any that are mainstream or well-known. Plus they have exactly the sound I go for...I wouldn't be surprised if I had a band and it sounded exactly like The Locals. The bass is nice and low, and instead of going higher like the organ does, it goes the opposite and moves to lower notes. I like that opposition between the instruments, and further emphasizes the laid back nature of the song. Like you just got up from a peaceful sleep to a beautiful morning.

Reading the lyrics online as it's not always easy to hear them (and I never hear lyrics properly) they just proved the song to be perfect...they seem to tell the story of someone who loves getting up early to enjoy the early sun, play his music and see his girlfriend. Hence the imagery I get from the organ - early morning sunlight and a beautiful girl, lazing about, even playing subdued music. Total ease of things, before the day gets hectic in the afternoon.

This is the perfect kind of song where absolutely everything works...the lyrics correspond to the nature of the music, the organ is perfect, the bass is laid back, the drums are easy, subtle and constant, even slow where the hi-hat is concerned, and the general imagery and atmosphere, particularly with my synesthesia, yields a perfectly molded feeling and image. I can calm myself down with this. Anyone could.

I'd give it an A.

Everything else, I should mention, like the sax and repeat/fade effects, are a great touch as well. One of the most perfect songs I've ever heard.

---

Realistically, had I heard the song and it hadn't been by me, I would have given it an A+, but I can't sound too biased towards myself. Ultimately, my lyrics actually do correspond with what I see in the music, which also corresponds to each other to help fill, complete the general atmosphere I originally saw in the organ. Every song does this of course. Every band or songwriter will write music in which the instruments work together harmoniously. That's how a tune works to begin with. It's just giving it that breath of fresh air, that atmosphere or image that pulls you right in and engages you, subdues or makes you feel perfect. Then providing lyrics that exploit that atmosphere or feeling in words to make it complete and drive the message home.

Of course a lot of people, like I've noticed and written about before, will write something very upbeat and then go right ahead and write dark lyrics (see my 'Foster the Kicks' post).

It would be awesome and fun and great to actually produce and record and play this actual song. But I couldn't sing it. I love the lyrics...the easy talk of early morning and optimism, the focus on playing music, the playful words regarding the girl and the kisses, etc...it's really wonderful. I've never gone so crazy for one of my lyrics before.

Justin C.

"Hold me Now"

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 03:57:00 +0000

I heard this properly just minutes ago.

There's a few songs that Wal-Mart pipes in that I actually find a good liking to. Usually you wouldn't find people fawning over music being piped into a large store, but as I work there I have to listen to it every day, and frankly, it is a hundred times better than what my co-workers play on their loud iPods.

Besides, most of the music that's piped in are songs I remember or know for once, and do like.

In this case I didn't know this song but I liked it right away. It sounded like it was from the 80s, which is probably what interested me at first (there is a certain sound songs from that decade have, like a fashion or quality, that easily discerns it from other songs from other times). I'd heard it a few times but I couldn't for the life of me hear the lyrics enough to use them to do a search online.

Tonight I finally did.

While dealing with food over-stock, and delighting in the music, almost dancing with the shopping cart of left over over-stock, I finally heard the lyrics of the chorus, and typed them into YouTube to see what I would get.

It has this sound to it...very gentle and easy and lovely. I've heard of the Thompson Twins before but I'd never really listened to them. I find a lot of blue in it. Doing my research, I found out it had a xylophone in it as well as other similar sounds and qualities.

I like the singer's voice, I like the full sound of the start of the chorus, and I like the lyrics. I make me think of myself a little...as well as what I've been through in a way, in the past.

It seems to be about someone trying really hard to repair a broken relationship.

I like how the singer uses gentle words and the music is easy-going. Instead of sounding 'macho' like most men these days (I think) the words bring out the singer's vulnerability and sensitiveness.

The song was done in the key of D major. That no doubt sealed the deal for my liking it...any song in that key attracts me. That's the perfect girl for me in synesthetic emotional mind-terms for me. I think of very lovely evenings with the one you ultimately love, in a place you ultimately feel safe, belong in. The entire song paints that for me.

I also see dawn, or the dull light right before it. Lots of pale blue, in different shades of it.

The high-pitched voice in the background of the final choruses is a great touch to it, adds color and spice and a slight humor to it (at least I find).

I really like this. I'm not particularly writing a review in the usual format or way I write it because I've only just heard it and I'm writing this on the spur of the moment to get it out there, but I'm going to give it an A.

As for the music video, I haven't really had the time to look at it yet. Again, I've only just heard it...and I read it took place with a blue background behind the band and such, ect.

"Hold me now
Warm my heart
Stay with me..."

Justin C.

Short, Odd Stories

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 03:18:00 +0000

A few years ago, out of nowhere, I decided to write a couple of very short stories that had no actual significance but reflected a funny memory I had. They were simple re-tellings of these memories, focusing on what made them funny to me. Overall...two 'stories' were written.
I thought I'd put them here. They're both from 2008.

No White Paint

I found no white paint.

As I walked over to Mr. Osterer, he was enthusiastically jumping into a great story to the students at one of the tables. They were keen and poised, eager to listen to the significant, potentially hilarious story Mr. Osterer was about to tell. As a walked past him I quickly said, "there's no white paint." I didn't look at him, just walked on.

Mr. Osterer's voice dissolved in mid-sentence, both of volume and of English. He turned toward me and said, aghast, "What?"

After figuring everything out and sorting out the paint, Mr. Osterer returned to his story. But by then, there was no more enthusiasm in his voice and the students, no longer expectant, were just barely listening over their work with no more interest.

Class went on.

---
I feel I should provide an afterword to this story (as I probably will for the next one). I wrote it in probably October or November 2008 while I was in a graphic design class taught by Irving Osterer, a nice, fun, great teacher. He was the head of fine arts at the school as well. And the library.

He had a point of enthusiastically talking to the pupils in my class while they worked, relating stories and memories. I was (annoyingly, like usual) stuck doing the grade eleven course, so it was held in the art classroom and everything was painted or drawn instead of done digitally on the computer (the grade twelve graphic design course focused on the digital side of the art). As usual, he would be bantering a funny story to the students at one desk cluster when I reported, or uttered, that there was no white paint, something of a shock to the teacher.

The funny part of that memory was how his voice and speech fell apart, dissolving into nothing as his mind shut down his current train of thought and reacted to my surprising revelation. Then a shocked "what?" followed as I walked away.

"It went like-l-w-n-u....what?"

I would bring this memory up to him a few times, and he would sheepishly acknowledge or say that it probably sounded like him.

That Noise

It's normally quiet in the basement of the school, in the music classroom and offices section.

In the morning, when there are no band rehearsals.

I was down there, like I normally was. I had a few friends there, and it was always something for me to do to go down there to converse with them and enjoy their company.

My one friend, Tristan, was busy keeping his eyes shut while lounging in an office chair. This was in the music department office, where council meetings were held, additional musical theory books were stored, where some music students studied, and where they all hung out at lunch. It was also where the offices of the teachers themselves opened out into. Filing cabinets, chairs, a table, and stands took up the room space.

I spent time there myself, though I wasn't a music student. It was true I had taken guitar in grade ten, but that wasn't current. I just knew the most people there.

Another friend of mine, Lyndsay, was perched upon a row of steel filing drawers reading a novel. Outside, a band rehearsal was going on, and that was the only noise filtering into the room. Otherwise it was very quiet. We were the only three people ensconced in the place.

I myself was sitting in another chair, starring forward. None of us made a sound. Tristan was trying to recapture his dreams, Lyndsay was silently reading, and I was sitting rock-still. I didn't want to interrupt them so I was silently contemplating my thoughts.

But then, suddenly something itchy nagged at me, and I reached up for my nose.

The resulting sound sure had an impact on the atmosphere of the silent room.

I looked to my right. Tristan's eyes were open and focused on me. I looked up at Lyndsay, her eyes now watching over the top of her novel.

"What?" I inquired.

"Nothing, I just saw what he did." As in, she saw Tristan alert and focused on me.

"I just heard you make a sound, it sounded like..." and he attempted to replicate the sound that came from me, which didn't sound at all like it did.

"I wouldn't make a sound like that."

"Whatever." He forced his eyes shut again and rested his head back against the chair.

The silence captured the room again.

Well, I thought, this sure isn't lunchtime.

No way.

The morning rolled on.

---

That story was probably the 'odd' one out of the 'short, odd' moniker. I am not even sure completely why I wrote it. Probably because it just seemed unusual. And extremely mundane at the same time.

That was an old time. I would spend my morning before the bell rang sitting like a silent statue in the outer office of the music department, in the hopes of my easy conversation with those then-friends Tristan and Lyndsay. That easy conversation never came though...I would have to start one myself, which was never easy for me to do. Both would be off in their own worlds, or together in their own world, and I was not a part of that.
You might wonder where the phrase "converse with them and enjoy their company" comes from, when in the entire story, all three of us are sitting rock-still, one trying to nap, another reading quietly to herself, and the third, not wanting to interrupt either, staring at a bank of filing cabinets like a mannequin.
The source of inspiration for that story is Tristan's attempt at re-creating the sound I made. Being very intelligent, vocal, and somewhat egotistical, I found it kind of funny and neat that he failed to perfectly replicate the noise I'd made when in everything else he does he strives to be the best in. It was rare for me to see him not do something right.

The noise he'd ended up making also sounded odd and funny to an extent as well.

It's an odd story.

After going through those again, it's made me want to write a third story, and I have a perfect, recent, funny memory to inspire it. I'm going to go ahead and write it below.

Tock!

It was late at night as the store maintained its mild silence. Not many people were shopping at quarter to eleven pm, and the general din of customers, their children, the stepping of their feet, and mumbling of many voices was close to nothing. Only the pages made over the store's intercom system kept up any noise.

I was busy approaching one of my co-workers, who had been doing something near sports. Earlier a small delegation of them, all un-loaders like myself, had gathered together to accomplish the task of dealing with a mixed pallet of merchandise. They - Patrick, Mark, David, and Vincent - left the receiving area a minute or so before I did, and I'd left that area by traversing the length of the building through the back areas, prohibited for customers to enter. I'd been slightly surprised to find myself coming out past the main public aisle at the back of the store to find my colleagues not even all the way down it from where they'd exited receiving at the other end.

As I shuffled past, I made one of those 'tock' noises I normally make. Anyone can do it - but not many can do it as loud as I can. Mine echo throughout the store.

As I did it, all four colleagues abruptly stopped moving the pallet slowly down the aisle. They took their hands off it, let go of the pump jack, and turned towards me, a small distance away down the aisle.

What?

I raised my eyebrows slightly as I looked at them, and continued towards the co-worker I'd seen a second ago over in sports. Making those 'tock' noises is something I do on a regular basis.

The night continued.

---

This was recent. I was nearing the end of my shift at Wal-Mart, and when it's late like that and the store is more quiet, I can make those sounds and you can hear it anywhere. Anyone who knows me knows I do that often, just out of the fact I can do it. And perhaps it's almost like a calling card; if you hear that sound, you know I'm nearby, or coming.
The humor there was the completely unusual amount of attention I'd been given by my working colleagues. They just dropped everything so they could look over at me, after I made that noise. I might as well had just pulled a monkey out of a hat.
One of them would tell me later it was just a reason for them to waste time (which could also be attributed to how slow they were moving with a simple mixed pallet, as if four people were needed to move it slowly and carefully). When less than half an hour is left on a shift, things can get like that.

But man...the way they all gave me their undivided attention for that...wow. I should try dancing next time.

I hope to continue to write more of these unusual, short, funny stories in the future.

Justin C.

Childhood Movies Revisited: Matilda

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 07:21:00 +0000

Back in October last year, I decided to re-watch a couple of movies from my childhood to see what they would be like to me at my current age. From an older perspective, where I would be more knowledgeable about things, have more wisdom and general maturity of things I wouldn't think about or comprehend as a child. I watched them to observe them with an adult mind, essentially, and to compare them as well.

I also touched on the movie Paulie in June.

This time, after remembering certain scenes I either found funny or memorable, I decided to watch Matilda, another classic childhood movie from 1996.

The story of Matilda originally came from Roald Dahl, published in 1988, a couple of years before his death. He was a fascinating children's author, and I've read a few of his books. The films are the best though, with Matilda likely being my most favorite. I also have James and the Giant Peach (both movie and book) and the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory originally) is timeless.

I probably, like all the works mentioned above, saw the movie first (unfortunately, I find, as I like the idea of reading the novel first) but I've heard the story before as well (it was read by one of my teachers in elementary school).

Essentially, it focuses on a young girl, Matilda Wormwood, who is remarkably smart and loves to read, but her parents are not interested in her in the least and otherwise ignores her. She eventually begins attending school, which is terrorized by its principal, Ms. Trunchbull. Befriending her wonderful, kind, caring teacher Ms. Honey, and developing a telekinetic power fueled by all the past verbal abuse she'd received from her father (and recently from Trunchbull) she helps free Ms. Honey from her dark past (as it is revealed that Trunchbull is her step-aunt and the likely cause for her loving father's death) and scares Trunchbull away with her powers. In the end she is adopted by Honey as her parents and older brother escape the country from the FBI (her father is a crooked used-car salesman).

When I was much younger and watching this movie, of course it was extremely different. As a kid you're attracted more to the visual aspect of it, the wonders of each scene and the action involved. You're not really focused on the dialogue or plotline. At least I wasn't. I was probably all set with the surrealistic scenes involving Matilda and her use of her telekinesis. Or the funny bits in which a newt ends up on Trunchbull and she jumps and dances about in fright, trying to get it off.

Now that I've seen it again, it's mostly the opposite. It took me several tries as a kid and younger adolescent to figure out the plotline of a movie because I wasn't paying enough attention to the dialogue, or digesting it. People would speak and then the scene would change, and that's what I'd get out of it. Nowadays people speak, meaning and context blossoms into focus, and it all makes sense. A story is told.
Think of it as when you're a kid you look in a children's book and only pay attention to all the fancy illustrations or pictures instead of reading it.

What I find interesting with this movie is the amount of dialogue I did not understand as a kid that I do now. Trunchbull uses a lot of moderate to even slightly large words in her phrasing and speech. For instance, she has an obese child named Bruce get up on stage during an assembly to accuse him of stealing a piece of her cake. Leaning into his face, she says "Do you deny it? ...Confess!"
I remember not knowing what those words meant at all.
Furthermore, with her British accent (Trunchbull is played by English actress Pam Ferris) and her usual shouting and rapid-fire ranting, I can see how I wouldn't have understood her at all. It's almost like a rediscovery. For the first time, as an enormous chocolate cake is set in front of the Bruce child on the stage as a sort of punishment for his eating her piece, I heard her say "Her blood and sweat went into the making of this cake and you will not leave this platform until you have devoured every single morsel of this confectionery!"
Other than Trunchbull's newly-understood phrasing (which sounds sophisticated, mildly intelligent and full of scathing insults) other contexts came into play to me. Like the federal detectives that watch the Wormwood house throughout the movie. I knew what Matilda was saying when she says "they're cops" to her disbelieving parents, and I had a vague idea that it had to do with Harry Wormwood and his used-car business dealings, but I never thought about it. Crooked, illegal business transactions are explored in this movie through Harry's illicit business, his illegal purchasing of car parts and his price fixing. He takes Matilda and her older brother to his used car lot and garage in the film and explains how he works: He purchases useless cars that are broken down for a low price, 'fixes' them up by using illegal, time- and money-saving, substandard methods (instead of welding a bumper back on, he glues it, he fills the transition with sawdust to quiet it down, runs the speedometer back to falsely show the lack of miles it's ran, etc.) and then sells it for almost triple the amount he paid for it.
Seeing her now, standing in the middle of the garage in that scene, loudly stating "this is illegal" to her father while pointing at the floor righteously to emphasize the business, almost cracks me up. You just don't see a little girl doing that these days, whether in a movie or not. It's amazing and different. You'd expect a full-grown, wise, smartly-dressed lawyer to say that, not very small child. It's just unusual, cute, and heroic all at once. It's a scene heavy with emphasis and right vs. wrong. A grand statement.

Matilda diverts the detectives to allow her father some time before they catch him by telekinetically releasing the handbrake from their parked car while she explains the consequences of them lacking a search warrant when she catches them in her garage.

Danny DeVito did a great job of interpreting and directing this film. He also plays Harry, and his real wife and actress Rhea Perlman plays his wife Zinnia. Plus he narrates it as well. Interestingly, I had absolutely no idea the same guy who played Harry Wormwood was also the voice that provided the easy, warm narration when I was young. The narrator and Harry sound virtually the same, except the vocal tones are very different (Harry tends to sneer and speak forcefully while the narrator is softer, slower, and kinder). I get the idea from how the film plays out, how certain scenes transition or come long, that it came from a Roald Dahl story. The style reflects what I'd see reading those books. Like the flashback scenes when Ms. Honey is telling her story, which feature right away and look almost dreamlike. Or when, as Ms. Honey is off to meet with Trunchbull in her office, the camera zooms up to her door very quickly as the sounds of Trunchbull's loud cackling and witch-like commentary are easily heard. You can tell that came out of a story, an eerie one with an evil, witch-like character.

I have to think that the character of Trunchbull came from a childhood experience of Roald Dahl's. I'd read some of his autobiographical book on his childhood, and in it he talks about a horrible old lady who ran a candy shop in his village who seemed to hate the children. Dahl and his friends decided to put a dead mouse in one of the jars as a prank because of her lack of hygiene, and in result their headmaster had caned them in front of her (as she laughed and encouraged the headmaster to go harder and longer).

It's still a pretty good movie, except that I now watch it with a much better awareness of how it plays out, and an educated, sophisticated, adult opinion. The Trunchbull character is pretty physically present. At one point she lifts the rear end of the faulty car she'd bought off of Harry Wormwood, a huge vehicle with shots (heavy metal balls for shot put) in the trunk, and turns the vehicle around. She then both pushes and steers the car all the way back to her house. Later she vaults over the banister of the second floor ("Tallyho!") and falls to the main floor, landing so hard things like china cabinets and light fixtures fall. It is mentioned in the movie she performed in the Olympics for shot put and javelin. And they always give the villains in stories horrible names - "Trunchbull?" Have you ever heard of a villain or negative character that doesn't have a theme for a name or an obvious name (like Dr. Evil) have a nice-sounding name? 'Wormwood" is another example - it's not "Warmwood" (as I thought as a child) but "Wormwood." Not very appealing isn't it?
She might as well be the female Arnold Schwarzenegger - he also lifts the rear end of a car in the movie Twins (1988).

From this point of view, it's still a great movie. The characters are interesting, certainly Agatha Trunchbull for her words and actions, and Matilda is sweet and heroic. I didn't expect Paul Reubens (Pee-Wee's Playhouse) to have been playing one of the detectives (I didn't know that then, and since then I never expected to have seen him before I did elsewhere). They used to say (and still probably do) that it's great for the kids and also fun for the adults.
It certainly is for this movie. I still want to see it again and a again...

I give it an A.

One more thing. The film also really put into me a childhood song I remember very well - "Send me on my Way" by Rusted Root. You know, that song with the acoustic guitar and whistling, and the deep voice that goes "on the way..." over and over. It's always, since then, been green to me, synesthetically, and it's a childhood classic. Not in the idea in that it's a childrens' song (it's not) but in the idea that that's where I originally heard it - when I was young.

I wonder when I'll watch it again?

Justin C.

Me and French: Incompatible

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 06:22:00 +0000

I have never, except for once, had a French teacher in school I particularly got on with.

I don't particularly know why. I was never in French-immersion. I just had core French as part of my classes in every year up to grade eight, when my mother had me exempted from the grade nine class (I would not have survived that at all).

Was it an innate desire to not learn the French language? Was it the teachers? Was it something psychological that could have originated with the fact Ottawa's closest neighbor is Quebec?
It could have possibly been my first impression of my first French teacher in junior kindergarten.

I'm serious about that. It is one of the few strong memories I have of junior kindergarten, among others. It was 1995. My teacher, named Diane Lizé (everyone called her Diane) welcomed this blonde, short, plump woman who looked like a young version of a fussy old lady. Diane said, "look at all the children, there's lots of them!" to her enthusiastically.
In a gruff voice, full of what sounded like mild disinterest, the teacher replied with "I can see that."

Her name was Madame Folks-Richard, and I would have her in both kindergarten classes, and from grade three onward to grade six. The 'exception' I noted in my opening sentence was a kind, sweet teacher I had in grades one and two called Weiss-Burger. I remember one of my classmates calling her that and me thinking he was joking or calling her a name, and I was surprised when she didn't tell him off at all but was as sweet as ever. Everyone normally called her Ms. W.

Oh, yeah. I might be wrong about either grade, whether it was one or two, but I also had a teacher named Pilon. I was largely indifferent to him, or at least found him boring (listening to French tapes had a lot to do with his teaching method).

Normally as I younger child I was quiet, shy, introverted (like I am now mostly) and just not a big voice or student in the classroom. But when French period came along, and it was Folks-Richard teaching, from grade three onward, I would turn into a sort of class clown.
I was constantly disruptive, mocking, and foolish when she taught. I don't know why. Perhaps pushing her buttons was something I found easy and simple to do. I never did well in French, which I attribute to my lack of interest, effort, and distracting time spent driving Folks-Richard nuts. In grade six, when she was teaching, I decided to put my hand up. When she ignored me (I was probably prone to giving flippant, silly answers or statements at the time) I got so anxious to be answered I jammed my arm up a few times dramatically, then fell sideways out of my chair and disappeared below desk level with my outstretched limb. A girl to my rear left burst into uncontrollable giggling.
I don't know how I knew it but I'd seen someone do it somewhere before, perhaps on TV or in a film, so I did it myself (and pretty neatly, too).

By that time I could barely care if I was sent into the hall because I'd almost rather be out there than in class listening to Folks-Richard. Eventually, though, it was obvious I didn't care, so I had to be careful.

I was never going to master French, and I knew it. I still am not sure why I had absolutely no interest in putting the effort forwards. At one time I might have thought that I was determined not to learn it. In grade seven, though, it was a little more fun because I had a different teacher (finally) named Chandler and she made everything extremely fun. My class, 7B, was mixed with one or two others in one period and she was one of those very artsy teachers who also ran the art club. Near the end of the year we were supposed to create a boardgame, so I essentially spent the whole time drawing and labeling the game while my then-friend Myles and his then-friend Rebecca used a French-English dictionary to translate the cards and words on the board (or piece of large thick card paper we used for a board).
That was the room in which I first noticed and discovered the plecostomus in the fishtank Chandler had, a fish that intrigued me like crazy and drove me to refilling my old fishtank just to get one myself. My own plecostomus would live from 2004 to 2009. If you don't know what it is, it's a bottom-feeder with a suction cup of a mouth that feeds on algae and essentially keeps the tank clean of it. They can grow to be as long as thirty-inches (the SuperPet on Merivale Road had a giant plecostomus at that length at one time, amazing).

Coming back to French from the common plecostomus, I spent all of grade eight French, with a teacher named Van Dusen, drawing on the back of the Scattergram games she had photocopied millions of times on to normal pieces of paper. I drew many things, or spent the time talking to my then-friend Myles (it might as well have been our conversation period) and otherwise did anything that had nothing to do with the subject matter. Van Dusen gave up very quickly on me and simply had me copy off of the week's quiz answers (really). The quiz was largely just a full paragraph written in French that we had to have committed to memory to re-write completely word-for-word, and she simply gave me the original paragraph for me to copy from.

The reason I spent the time otherwise not learning French in grade eight very likely had to do with the idea that my mother had intended on removing me from the course, so I didn't have to bother with any effort. But my idea was miss-interpreted as I would be exempted from French the next year, not next month.

In all due respect, I have absolutely nothing against the French language, or the people or France or anything. I love Quebec and its wilderness and places, like my grandfather's land area east of the Gatineau River where my father and I plus my cousins and other family members have been visiting the cabin for many years. There is nothing I have an issue with. It's all great.
Except for my indifference towards learning the language.

Ultimately, it is highly unlikely that I will ever learn the language. My father went through several courses of French language training over a couple of years to help him advance his career as a diplomat, and it was apparently grueling. However, he can speak several languages fluently. I don't see how I would have any trouble with that myself if I have a parent who has such a linguistic ability. I once had the idea that I have my father's weakness in maths and my mother's weakness in languages, and not the other way around, though that's probably not the case at all. My mother had intentions to move herself and I out to Vancouver or (and this city was talked about a little more) ironically, Calgary. Just to avoid the increasing pressure to learn French just to be able to move higher up the government ladder. I'm glad we never did.

I very likely will never be fluent in French. I just won't. In grade nine, on my way to deliver something from English class to the main office, the school was showing their production of Lucky Stiff, and inviting the middle schools over like usual. I ran into Van Dusen on my way down the stairs and was shocked. She was delighted by the surprise encounter and said teasingly, "I've come back to teach you French again." I spent the entire short exchange staring in blank surprise as she did all the talking, then excused herself.

That was the last time I ever had anything to do with anything French-class-related, or with a French teacher, until I had to interview one in grade 12 in my co-op position with the Barrhaven Independent. It was all about the French Immersion program going to France.
I'd had to utilize my father's help in spelling the names the teacher had pronounced on my voice recorder, while he was in the middle of trying to take a nap that weekend. Indeed, I had no idea what the teacher had said when he'd pronounced "Champs Élysées."

Jüstìñ Çâmpßêll

Betray my Principle Again, No?

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 21:30:00 +0000

He looked at her friend. This friend was a school buddy of his sister through his father. This friend was female, only ten years old, with extreme soft features that came from being essentially chubby. This friend had her own Facebook account, cell phone, and adult-like worded opinions.

He was only mildly astounded.

---

Imagine that. A 10-year-old girl that jumps at junk food, uses a cell phone, and casually talks about Facebook friends as if she were twenty-five and had her own sophisticated, slightly chiding adult opinions.

I won't say who I am referring to but it was like that during my camping at Sandbanks the other week (the one final time in the summer I could find to go camping for once).

It took me until the age of eighteen to sign up on Facebook, and as of now I still don't have a cell phone. Why did I wait so long? For the cell phone issue, since I was fourteen, both my mother and father would say "you don't need one." That was the beginning of that. I've grown to decide that I actually don't really need one unless I want to spoil myself, have access to people at all times, and be like everybody else. I've decided I'd rather stand out from other people with this difference to illustrate it.
The same went for Facebook. I didn't see the point.

The big idea with standing out and not following everyone else my age was and still mostly is my principle. I betrayed that principle when I signed up on Facebook, using the veiled excuse that it was an 'experiment.' It kind of was. But most of my motivation came from someone on Google clicking on one of the results, that being this blog, when they used a girl's name as a search term. A girls' name that comes to mind when I used to listen to 'In the City.'
In September, on the day I begin my first day of classes at Algonquin, I intend on reactivating my Facebook account.
Much later, but still in September, or perhaps early October, I intend on, you know it, buying a simple cell phone.

Why do I want to betray my principle again?

The point to Facebook was originally getting back in touch with that girl and perhaps finding the courage to launch a proper friendship with them. Which I did. (Yes, I did). As a result though, it has thrown me into developing other friendships both with people I only knew vaguely, as well as people I'd lost touch with over time, in the process.
That's where it starts to transition into the whole cell phone business. Prior to it, I would always use e-mail. Rarely, I'd use the chat feature in my Yahoo! mail service with my cousins. That was it. Facebook ultimately opened up the whole connection thing much further, as well as with a modern way (in the technology and connected world) of keeping in touch with (and tabs on) people. I say 'modern' in those terms because e-mail is often referred to as the 'old fashioned way' of conveying messages. Television shows that encourage the viewer to be as updated and knowledgeable about it refer to e-mail that way - for instance, a host will go "if you want to stay in the loop, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, add us to your RSS feed, or, you can use old-fashioned e-mail and we'll send you updates."

Of the average co-workers that I share a shift with at work, nine out of ten of them smoke. Ten out of ten of them, however, all have cell phones. If we're on break, everyone but me will be playing on them. Using them to play games, look at text messages, Facebook, whatever. Sitting at a separate table to avoid the smoke, I heard the Family Guy theme play on one of their phones at their table. One co-worker will stop at any time to answer a text message he gets, no matter what he is doing. And he gets them often. It's mildly annoying for me and all the rest of us, because he doesn't even need to answer a text message to want to stare and finger-type on the device distractedly.

I'm going to be clear on one thing about my decision on the cell phone thing: I'm not treating it as a way to fill time, or as a distraction, or as my own entertainment piece that I use at all times, like everyone else does. I'm only doing it to be more active in my social life - in terms of being able to have a means to be invited to things or called wherever I am without having to use a laptop with WiFi.
It's like what I mentioned above - to have access to people at all times. Originally I didn't see the need because there were no people to have access to.

It's almost like unraveling from a cocoon. I had my family and a few friends I could e-mail easily enough. Then I try Facebook (being unwittingly motivated by girl) and that opens me up to more people I can connect to who want to be connected to me (all those friend requests I got that first night). I'm invited to a few things just because I'm available on Facebook, just because now that I'm there, there's another person we all kind of knew and we want him to actively take part in some of our social activities. That's the positive thing that came out of it. I was introduced to nightlife (not that it was the most important step for me to take in my adulthood, but most people my age find the nightlife a perfect setting to be frivolous and social) and I did in fact make a few friends interested in knowing me. And I did (yes) reconnect with that girl.

It was like the first bit of unraveling for me. However, that only goes so far. Using Facebook for me required I had a computer or laptop with Internet connection. That was all I had. Yes, I could be in contact with people or be connected, but not properly connected. If I wanted to do something with someone, I had to message them on there. Their response could take a few days, even weeks, because it's contingent that they're on their computer, on that website. It depends if they had their message notification on (that means Facebook directly e-mails you if something directly involving you occurred on there). If it was off, they would have to manually look at their messages, or remember to look at them at least. It depends on how much they went on Facebook, really, and looked at their messages, and with some people, they never did.

When I spent a day with the aforementioned girl this past spring, it took her over an entire week to respond to my message.

The social network opened me up to people and forged constant contact with them, but only if they were using it to begin with. And mistakes can happen. A few weeks ago my friend Sophia was leaving for Norway as part of her exchange program. I knew her in high school as a co-president, interviewing her once when I did the co-op placement with the paper, and she friend requested me herself.
Several of my cousins know her personally as well (of course).
I was invited to her going-away party. She specified the time as 9pm to 12am. I arrived at ten after nine, slightly late but nevertheless close to on time.
When no one showed up by ten after eleven, two hours later, I left, disgruntled.
I couldn't very well just conjure up a computer with Internet and send her a message asking where she was through Facebook. I had no way of knowing anything. I would find out later that a lot of the people I knew that had made it known they were coming had instead decided to go to Zaphod's at the last minute. As for Sophia herself and her friends, I would learn that they arrived only twenty minutes after I left.
According to normal nightlife time-lines, regardless of what time is stated, it usually always starts sometime after eleven pm. As Kevin, another friend, would put it, I was just 'too early.'
Personally, I'd thought dinner was a part of it, which was why the time had been put as 9pm.

It's why I have to betray my principle again - what is left of it anyway - and move forward and purchase a cell phone. It would have come in use that night. It can come in use when people I know can simply just text or call me when they intend on going out or doing something together, wherever they are, at any moment. It's the ease and simplicity, and mobility, of the whole thing, that will make me much more easy to approach - or, that is, other people to me easy to approach, instead of almost impossible. I can't send any messages to that girl or her friend, who is also my friend, on Facebook because they are never on it. Yet I could call them right away and they'd almost definitely answer. We could have lunch again, like last summer. No waiting for them to go on their computer.

It's like a process. I didn't really do anything with anyone. Then I went on Facebook, got to experience a few things, connect with a few people. Now it's using both systems to their advantage - the social network and the mobile network - to actually have a social life.
Except I'm not using a contract plan and I'm not getting a device that is so universally rich with every single thing possible like games or movies or whatever, to the point I'm hypnotized by it like my co-worker is. Geez. No, just a simple phone that works.

Justin C.

Experiment's Finished, The

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 06:39:00 +0000

I am staying well away from Facebook for the next while.

It's deactivated. In the required "why?" section, I specified at first that "Facebook isn't useful." It isn't. Then I chose "This is temporary. I'll be back." It kind of is. I will be back - but not after a long time away from it.

The "experiment" I first called it back in January of 2010 turned out interesting "results." My original idea was to see what would happen inexplicably when I activated my account. What inexplicably happened was five or six people I only vaguely knew by sight from high school added me within a couple of hours.

It went downhill from there though. It's not a real actual thing. All it is is having all these people listed as friends on your profile, and watching their occasional photos, links, thoughts and whatever appear in the newsfeed. It wasn't all that extraordinary.

It gives you the unrealistic feel and idea that everyone you know is right there in your pocket, when they aren't unless you have a stupid cell phone and they can contact or text you instantly wherever. I had, over all this time, a maximum of about seventy-two friends. The vast majority of that was what I'd received friend requests from. The only requests I sent were to cousins, a couple of aunts, my longest friend, a few others, two girls and a few people I met this year's Canada Day.

The problem with social networking is you have to be active with it as well as personal with it. I had absolutely no personal relationships with probably 85% of my 'friends' on there. The 15% I met at bars because they invited me for someone's birthday or their band was playing.

That happened about once every two months.

I personally really do not have any idea at all why most of those people added me in the first place. The vast majority of them never really knew me personally, and they would never go on to see me in person in all that time either.

The tragic thing though is that I tried to encourage or suggest things in person, and they never worked out. Why be my online friend if you do not want to pursue a personal one? It gets sadder - on any given day, particularly near, on, or after a holiday, these 'friends' of mine would often do stuff together while I sat at home mindlessly watching and anticipating their fun photos of it all. "Five friends were tagged in this photo album." I would see that all the time.

Was it really just a portal for me to watch what people counted me as their friend have fun pursuing proper personal friendships?

The other side of this is the large amount of people on there that do nothing.
I had all sorts of friends on there that simply did not go on Facebook at all. I don't know why they even bothered having an account. They didn't post anything, nothing. They were never on chat. The most I ever saw of, at least some of them, was when a friend of theirs (not a friend of mine) added a photo of them doing something together. If I tried contacting them via the site, I would not get a reply in weeks, or not even at all.

I remember a study somewhere that said the more time people spend on social networking sites, the more sad or depressed they become. I guess that makes perfect sense, particularly for me, someone who has an awkward trouble and big disadvantage with social situations and feelings. All summer I've worked, and then come home and sat - to stare at Facebook. Meanwhile, everyone else I knew on Facebook probably worked, and then received a text message on their phone or got a call from one of my other online friends, and they went out that night or attended an occasion simply to just enjoy the other's company.

I could keep suggesting that online, but to no avail. Actually, it did work once, when I sent a message asking to catch up with a girl I knew in May, but that was the one time. Actually, to be fair, I never did send any personal messages to anyone on Facebook asking if they wanted to hang out, because, as we come full circle - I didn't know them well and they added me!
Someone would tell me at one point that just writing general statuses suggesting doing something to an entire audience of friends in the newsfeed would never work, however I've seen it work for other people on there many times. I never had any proper previous personal relationships, friendships or whatever, with almost any of my online friends to begin with, so I couldn't very well send someone I knew vaguely by sight and memory and ask "do you want to go skating on the canal with me today?"

With every thousand statuses I write on my wall, someone else will write on it, and that will be a response to something I rarely did (which was write on their wall). It is extremely, extremely rare if anyone ever commented on anything I wrote, shared or linked, let alone 'liked.'

It's like, the whole result of the experiment at all was just that a bunch of people added me as a friend, and I did the same to some others, and that was it. I've asked for feedback on stuff I've done and never gotten it. I put up my 'Nice Guy' story chapter by chapter in the 'notes' page and no one gave feedback, then I was stunned when it turned out people did read it when they told me about it in person that rare, rare time, and one girl even used it for a university paper in Minnesota! I would find that out much later.

In all, Facebook did nothing but give me a very detailed, simple access to what everyone else my age is doing, together, while I sit and watch. It also made it easier for me to, on those rare occasions, actually be invited to watch a band play or attend someone's birthday.

Before I deactivated (temporarily, and for awhile) my account, since it did nothing but bring about a useless, counter-productive thing to stare at and provide ways to feed depression and whatnot, I sent a message to a selected audience of recipients. I explained simply and quickly why I was deactivating my account, and gave contact information. Those people are the 15% that had anything to do with me, intentionally and with genuine interest in active, personal friendship. I hope to continue my interaction with all of them in some way that does not involve needless scrutiny of Facebook. After all, there are many ways one can be connected, even if he doesn't have a stupid cell phone. I have a bloody phone at home. I have two e-mail addresses. Heck, I'm on Google+, though that seems to be even more useless (luckily I don't stare at it nearly as often).

The next time I do go on Facebook again, it might be almost Christmas. But we'll see.

Justin C.

Hot Love Around the Bend

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 05:41:00 +0000

I stated that I would be writing a review on one of the songs I briefly mentioned in passing in a previous post, and that had been a song called 'Around the Bend.' Well, here it is. I've gotten into listening to it a few times now, properly, so here I write.

In terms of discovery, it was through a commercial. I'm sure that's how everyone discovered it, because otherwise, the band itself isn't a hugely mainstream, widely-known outfit. If it weren't for that commercial, I'm sure I wouldn't be the only person who hadn't heard it or the band before.

It was an iPod commercial. Those are usually colorful ads, and on this occasion they used pretty good music. Usually all I hear though is "If you had an iPod" (or iPhone, etc) or "does your iPhone/Pod do..."

Instantly, it was the horns that got me. A trumpet and sax. That, and the basic sound of the music surrounding it, the guitar and bass.

I'd only hear it on the commercial. Though I would also hear a small portion of it on an episode of Chuck (I don't know what episode, I wasn't really watching the TV but the scene was a convention setting).

In 2009, while with my cousins and camping on Grand Lake in Algonquin Park, one of them brought their iPod and speakers on the beach and put music on. This song was part of their playlist.

I was filming little clips on my digital camera, and made sure to get bits of the song floating in and out of the audio so I'd have some of it to hear when watching the clips later. I didn't bother asking my cousin who had the iPod what the song was until later through e-mail, because the high-pitched female voice kind of got me a bit. I liked the music but I wasn't that into the voice, or the fact that I admittedly found a song on my cousins' iPod that I actually liked - I felt weird always having a negative approach to what they listened to, and then suddenly I'm all enthusiastic about one recent song. What would they think of that? I was probably a little self-conscious.

My cousin Olesia would tell me the name of the song and the band, Asteroid Galaxy Tour, but I wouldn't go looking for it on YouTube for the reasons stated above. Eventually my maternal grandpa inadvertently deleted every one of my e-mails when I forgot to log out on his computer, so I would not have any way of figuring it out again.

A few days ago, I finally decided to look it up on YouTube by simply searching the title. I quickly found it and, with the volume really low (I still had a bit of difficultly expecting high-pitched voices and things, I know, it's weird) I properly listened to it.

Hearing it normally, I found more elements of the song that worked. There's a guitar that's kind of quiet, like it's in the background, and it works perfectly. The horns sound as good as ever. The bass has a good tune to it. I used to think it was kind of similar to 'Summer Breeze' by Seals and Croft, during the verses, but while it is kind of similar it isn't identical. It's also very similar to the bass during the chorus of 'Alive' by Pearl Jam - except in this song it starts on F# instead E, and ends on B instead of A. It's one tone higher than 'Alive.' And it ends on a high B while 'Alive' ends on a low E (during the chorus).

The big musical players in this song to me are the horns, bass and guitar. The drums have an easy, though mildly interesting, beat to them. Sometimes the snare is struck a few times in quick succession at the end of a measure. There's also a keyboard but it isn't that easy to hear and I think it only plays bit parts.

The band, I have read, only really consists of a female vocalist and a producer, and they come from Denmark. However, they must employ a few session musicians for the other instruments (their music is definitely not computer/keyboards-only based) and they use all these other musicians, a trumpeter and sax player, bassist, drummer, etc. in their live shows.

This song is one of those few in which I really like the guitar. It doesn't sound aggressively loud and leading - it's actually kind of just a piece of the song that fills up the sound but is essential. It makes it complete without having to be the most prominent instrument.
It gives me the image of me standing in the background of some sort of event I am at first cynical of, but everything pulls off nicely and I am appreciative and pleasantly surprised, which is the sound of the guitar in the song to me - being happy and appreciative and liking something you might have thought wouldn't have worked at first. From the background. This guitar riff continues throughout the entire song, including verses (often you'll hear something like that just in the choruses). It's a rough yellow to me (and produces that pleasant image/feeling/setting).

I very quickly got used to the vocals. At first they were a bit cringing to listen to, as they got very high-pitched near the end ("I'll stay fooorreeeeever!") but generally they actually sound inviting and amiable, even kind of loving. Granted, at first you get the idea that an eight-year-old girl is singing it, and with a trace of lust in her voice (certain words sound that way) but you end up getting what sounds like a teen who really wants the best time of her life in a positive and memorable way.
I think that original image is what made me keep my distance from the song at first.

What I like the most about the voices is that other voices come and go in the song, and while they might sound a bit silly or unnecessary, they actually provide this feeling or atmosphere for who or what the song is directed at, perhaps what kind of listener it's directed towards. I get the feeling the voices are like the ones of the singer's friends or posse - and they're eager to be curious and playful. It's kind of cute in a way, particularly how they sound sometimes. I even see a bit of childhood innocence in the way they sound at some points. To me, with the vocalist and her replying murmurs and voices, it's like the song is about wanting a good time, particularly with friends, and 'around the bend.' Good times, friendly love, endless days of childlike discovery of the world, and ultimate warm-heartedness to the ones you know. The words "I'll stay forever with you" seem to imply that this state of loving friendship and good times should never end and won't.

If I were a guy (well, I am) and she were singing to me, I would probably wonder if she had romantic intentions after hearing the full song, like every other guy would no doubt wonder. It does imply that as well - 'hot hot love around the bend' - but I like to think that it's all in the name of friendly love, which I think sounds better because it then involves everyone else in this 'group' the other voices in the song depict. And for some reason it sounds sweeter to me. I'm saying this without consciously trying to avoid being selfish.

In the end I actually really do like the voice, though I hope it's not because it sounds young. Largely it's because of the way she sings and pronounces, inflects her words. A lot of feeling and implication is embedded in her tone, which really sounds nice.

I won't go into the music video because the one I found is not one I am sure of. I do not really believe there is an actual music video to the song. The one I found might be it, but I am not sure because the song sounds like it's being played live and stuff.

The voice and song in general make me think of a several people, all girls, particularly one I knew in high school. Largely for the similarities in what the song is about or what and how the singer sings about it.

It's a really good song if you can get over the voice at first (it's not that bad). The bass uses a great sound that's not unfamiliar and fun/optimistic, the guitar is perfect, the horns are a nice touch, and the singer really carries the message and want that it has. It's almost profound.

Music: A-
Lyrics: B +

By the way, the voice fits the exact illustration of the girl in the screenshot. I hear it and I see a blonde girl with long hair and soft features and the girl there appears to have them perfectly (she has blonde hair in the other video I saw just to prove it).

Justin C.

75 Songs

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 00:36:00 +0000

Today, I watched and typed down every song, its artist, album and release date, from that videotape of them I've mentioned on here a few times before. I knew it was a big task since I've always decided it was around eight hours long and there were over a hundred music videos on it.

My estimations were grossly inaccurate.

To give a brief explanation of what I'm talking about in case no one has read any of my prior mentions, I'm referring to an old videotape my mother used to record music videos as well as interviews and concerts off of the TV. Back in the day it was something that was done often.

I remember watching it with my mother as a younger child. Around that time, 1997-98, she'd recorded a few songs I'd liked myself on there, including 'Where's the Love' by Hanson and a fun music video by Backstreet Boys called 'Everybody (Backstreet's Back).' I think some of the music on the tape had a small hand in influencing my musical tastes because it was played often when I was younger, exposing me to pop music, sometimes obscure but mostly mainstream, from the late 80s and early 90s.

Today I spent about four hours fast-forwarding every music video on there, only pausing it at the beginning to take down the name of the song, artist, album and year. Sometimes I wouldn't fast-forward and just watch the ones I liked. Originally I thought it would take absolutely forever, all day. In a way, it did, but to my big surprise as I got to the end, I finished it at seventy-five songs. Or music videos.

Had I not fast-forwarded it, but also not paused it, and had there not been any interview segments between videos or repeats of one video (sometimes a song repeats twice or even more), the tape would actually probably only be about three hours long. There are some parts of the tape that are devoted to a part of an episode of Spotlight, an old series MuchMusic used to air, so several songs by one artist or band, plus interview segments, would go by. Spotlight episodes of Mariah Carey, Crowded House, Barenaked Ladies, Genesis, and Whitney Houston feature.

Love Takes Time - Mariah Carey, Mariah Carey (1990) [Part of MuchMusic Spotlight episode on Mariah Carey]

I Don't Wanna Cry - Mariah Carey, Mariah Carey (1990) [Part of MuchMusic Spotlight episode on Mariah Carey]

Emotions - Mariah Carey, Emotions (1991) [Part of MuchMusic Spotlight episode on Mariah Carey]

Dreamlover - Mariah Carey, Music Box (1993) [Part of MuchMusic Spotlight episode on Mariah Carey]

Possession - Sarah McLachlan, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (1993)

Trust Yourself - Blue Rodeo, Casino (1990)

The Color of My Love Concert, Celine Dion, Quebec City, Recorded 1993, Released 1995. 'Mislead' and other unnamed songs.

Don't Dream it's Over - Crowded House, Crowded House (1986) [Part of a MuchMusic Spotlightepisode on Crowded House]

Something So Strong - Crowded House, Crowded House (1986) [Part of a MuchMusic Spotlight episode on Crowded House]

Into Temptation - Crowded House, Temple of Low Men (1988) [Part of a MuchMusic Spotlight episode on Crowded House]

It's only Natural - Crowded House, Woodface (1991) [Part of a MuchMusic Spotlight episode on Crowded House]

Distant Sun - Crowded House, Together Alone (1993) [Part of a MuchMusic Spotlight episode on Crowded House]

It's Alright (Baby's Coming Back) - Eurythmics, Be Yourself Tonight (1985)

Why - Annie Lennox, Diva (1992)

Whatta Man - Salt-N-Peppa & En Vogue, Very Necessary (1993) [Repeats x3, once more later on the tape]

(If There Was) Any Other Way - Celine Dion, Unison (1990)

Where Does My Heart Beat Now - Celine Dion, Unison (1990)

All We Are - Kim Mitchell, Akimbo Alogo (1984)

Rocklandwonderland - Kim Mitchell, Rockland (1989)

Higher Love - Steve Winwood, Back in the Highlife (1986)

Here Comes A Man - TRAFFIC, Far From Home (1994)

Make You A Believer - Sass Jordan, Racine (1992)

You Don't Have to Remind Me - Sass Jordan, Racine (1992)

Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover - Sophie B. Hawkins, Tongues and Tails (1992)

Don't Mean Nothing - Richard Marx, Richard Marx (1987)

Into the Great Wide Open - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Into the Great Wide Open(1991)

Under the Bridge - Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1992)

Soul to Squeeze - Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Coneheads soundtrack (1993)

Here I am - Lyle Lovett, Lyle Lovett and his Very Large Band (1988)

She's No Lady - Lyle Lovett, Pontiac (1987)

Love Shack - The B-52s, Cosmic Thing (1989)

Blues Before and After - The Smithereens, Smithereens 11 (1989)

Blood and Roses - The Smithereens, Especially For You (1986)

Only a Memory - The Smithereens, Green Thoughts (1988)

People Everyday - Arrested Development, 3 Years, 5 Months, & 2 Days in the Life of... (1992) (Repeats x2)

Moonlight Desires - Gowan, Great Dirty World (1987)

All the Lovers in the World - Gowan, Lost Brotherhood (1990)

When There's Time (For Love) - Gowan, But You Can Call Me Larry (1993)

Here Comes a Man TRAFFIC repeat x2

Enid - Barenaked Ladies, Gordon (1992) [Part of a MuchMusic Spotlight episode on Barenaked Ladies]

Lovers in a Dangerous Time - Barenaked Ladies, Kick at the Darkness (Bruce Cockburn tribute album) (1991) [Part of a MuchMusic Spotlight episode on Barenaked Ladies]

If I had 1,000,000 - Barenaked Ladies, Gordon (1992) [live performance] [Part of a MuchMusic Spotlight episode on Barenaked Ladies]

Brian Wilson - Barenaked Ladies, Gordon (1992) [Part of a MuchMusic Spotlight episode on Barenaked Ladies]

No One Else on Earth - Wynnona, Wynnona (1992)

Mama - Genesis, Genesis (1983) [Part of a MuchMusic Spotlight episode on Genesis]

In Too Deep - Genesis, Invisible Touch (1986) [Part of a MuchMusic Spotlight episode on Genesis]

I Can't Dance - Genesis, We Can't Dance (1991) [Part of a MuchMusic Spotlight episode on Genesis]

Man on the Corner - Genesis, Abacab (1981) [Part of a MuchMusic Spotlight episode on Genesis]

Illegal Alien - Genesis, Genesis (1983) [Part of a MuchMusic Spotlight episode on Genesis]

Land of Confusion - Genesis, Invisible Touch (1986) [Part of a MuchMusic Spotlight episode on Genesis]

No Son of Mine - Genesis, We Can't Dance (1991) [Part of a MuchMusic Spotlight episode on Genesis]

7 Seconds - Youssou N'Dour & Neneh Cherry, The Guide (Wommat) & Man (1994)

You Give Good Love - Whitney Houston, Whitney Houston (1985) [Part of a MuchMusicSpotlight episode on Whitney Houston]

I'm Your Baby Tonight - Whitney Houston, I'm Your Baby Tonight (1990) [Part of a MuchMusic Spotlight episode on Whitney Houston]

I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houstin, The Bodyguard soundtrack (1992) [Part of a MuchMusic Spotlight episode on Whitney Houston]

Into the Fire - Sarah McLachlan, Solace (1991)

Possession [Different Version] - Sarah McLachlan, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (1993)

I Got You - Split Enz, True Colors (1980)

One Step Ahead - Split Enz, Waiata (1981)

Message to My Girl - Split Enz, Conflicting Emotions (1984) [Repeats x2]

Somewhere Down the Crazy River - Robbie Robertson, Robbie Robertson (1987)

Baby, Baby, Baby - TLC, Ooooooohhh on the TLC Tip (1992)

Creep - TLC, Crazy Sexy Cool (1994)

I Wanna Be Down - Brandy, Brandy (1994)

Baby - Brandy, Brandy (1995)

Red Light Special - TLC, Crazy Sexy Cool (1995)

Charms - Philosopher Kings, The Philosopher Kings (1996)

Living in a Dream - Arc Angels, Arc Angels (1992)

Do you Know (What it Takes) - Robyn, Robyn is Here (1997)

Where's the Love - Hanson, Middle of Nowhere (1997)

D'You Know What I Mean? - Oasis, Be Here Now (1997)

Everybody (Backstreet's Back) - Backstreet Boys, Backstreet's Back (1997)

Building a Mystery - Sarah McLachlan, Surfacing (1997)

Bad Girl - Madonna, Erotica (1992)

Secret - Madonna, Bedtime Stories (1994)

Since I have now gotten everything listed, I can now break it down into interesting bits of information.

1980 - 1 song
1981 - 2 songs
1983 - 3 songs
1984 - 2 songs
1985 - 2 songs
1986 - 6 songs
1987 - 3 songs
1988 - 3 songs
1989 - 3 songs
1990 - 7 songs
1991 - 6 songs
1992 - 14 songs
1993 - 7 songs
1994 - 5 songs
1995 - 2 songs
1996 - 1 song
1997 - 5 songs

It's interesting to sort of find the average year the videos were from. 1992 wins in this regard. In terms of artist, it appears Genesis has the most videos.

I probably over-estimated the time of the tape due to the fact that one music video seems hours away from another music video only three or four videos later. When I look at that and see 'Message to My Girl' and then look at 'Creep' only two videos away, I could not see how close that is when I think of the time it felt like for me to get from one to the other. What probably makes it seem so long like that is due to the change in atmosphere; one musical video has an extremely different taste, atmosphere, setting, and sound from another one, and when you've changed these different factors a few times, factors that often have a huge contrast with one another between videos, it seems like you've come a long way.

It's a good tape. It's like a playlist. In this day and age it might as well be a playlist on your iPod that you listen to on your way to work or school. It probably wouldn't seem nearly as long for one thing. But back in the old days, with videotapes and well-done, creative, illustrative music videos recorded on them, there's a real atmosphere and aesthetic to it. I like it; I probably like it more than what you hear on mp3s and iPods today (in terms of sound quality and how it's interpreted). I'd probably go for the old tapes over the 'official, original' versions of the music videos offered on VEVO on YouTube - those sound too clear and perfect and new, refined and remastered.
Plus the ads are quite annoying.

If you find any song in the list that you remember or like, I'm pretty sure they're on YouTube, 'perfect' and 'remastered.' But you can't beat the aesthetic of atmosphere and the old sound quality of that tape. On there, they sound original.
That's always the best in my opinion.

Justin C.

Foster the Kicks

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 05:58:00 +0000

It is very rare for me to find a good interest and liking of a song that came out only a year ago. Mostly my interest in songs tend to focus on ones decades prior to a year ago. Other than The Raconteurs' 'Steady as She Goes,' and a song called 'Around the Bend' by Danish group 'Asteroid Galaxy Tour' (I'll be writing a separate piece on that later) as well as this song, there are no others.

The reasons I like those two others, in a nutshell, is largely because they sound similar to other songs from the many years ago category, or borrow styles or instrumentation. 'Steady As She Goes' is 'Is She Really Going Out With Him' with different lyrics and in a slightly lower key.

This one was released in 2010 and is titled 'Pumped up Kicks' by Foster the People.

I discovered it when overhearing it on the TV in my mother's room, which I have already explained is a source for a lot of older music that my mother listens too and thus I end up listening to (without complaint, it's good music). I heard this prominent, nice, colorful and positive-sounding bass line, and the chorus sounded interesting as well. At that time, however, I had misheard them as I usually do the first time and thought they'd gone 'I'll be with the kids.'

It made me think of myself looking after my half-siblings last summer, or my friend Elliot's busy parenting lifestyle with his young children.

The contrast between what I thought the song was about and what it's about is pretty big. Instead of being with kids, rather, it's about shooting them up.

Also, and I'm just putting it out there before I dive into the content of the song, the bass line of the entire song (which never changes) made me think during my ignorance of large families of children, namely the Royal Tenenbaums, a movie I saw once and like. In a positive way.

I ended up having to read the lyrics online. It simply tells the story of a teenager who has the desire to shoot and kill as much of his peers as he can. It is implied that he was bullied or teased by them.

When a review of the song I read brought up the Columbine Massacre twelve years ago, I decided to do some research and read up on it. Yeah, the main character in this song might as well be a reincarnation of one of those two boys.

The music is pretty contrasted to the lyrics. I read that it was written first, then the lyrics. It's interesting when bands or artists decide to contrast their music and lyrics. Usually it's with upbeat, happy music and sad lyrics. I don't think I've heard sad music and happy lyrics before. Good examples of sad songs with bright music are Madness's 'Crying Shame' and (to get away from Madness) Steely Dan's 'Reelin' In the Years.'
Maybe I should try and write happy lyrics to sad music? See how it sounds?

The music video to the song, to me, makes no sense at all. It's rather just a large amount of random scenes spliced together of members of Foster the People doing leisurely activities, being silly, and playing on stage what looks like a rather loud rock song. I get that idea from the body language and the way the lead singer seems to be screaming sometimes.

Ironically, before I looked it up and listened properly, I'd thought the song came from the 1970s because it sounded so cheerful and bass-driven. It had this indie sound to it. Instead, when I mentioned liking this song on Facebook, a friend of mine was able to ask the DJ at the bar on my birthday to play a song they actually had because it was very recent. He'd originally asked, to my surprise and awkwardness, to have the bar play 'Our House.' I really am tired of people thinking that's my song or my only real favorite song, or the only one I am known to like. Its lost it's shocking, heavenly appeal to me seven years ago. I like Madness for their entire sound, their every B-side, album track, history, image, and effort. Not entirely and just for 'Our House.'

'Pumped up Kicks' is a pretty good song for its sound, and it has a message to it. That gives the single from the band its appeal to me, and I have something my friends can ask to have played on my birthday at the bar. That and those other two songs.
The bass begins in F by the way. I've comprised an entire organ part to it as well.
Lyrics: B+
Music: A-
Music video: C

"He's coming for you, he's coming for you..."

Justin C.

Parallax!

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 04:02:00 +0000

Parallax error isn't a helpful thing in photography. It's mostly a nuisance and an annoyance.

Older cameras used to have this problem: The old film cameras normal people, non-photographers, used to take casual photos on vacation and things like that, family photos of trips and that stuff, those cameras always had slight parallax error. The viewfinder wasn't looking through the lens, it was above the lens so what one saw and what one shot was slightly different.
SLR cameras have no parallax error at all because you're looking through the lens. That's where the name comes from. The 'reflex' is based on the mirror used to see through the lens flipping up to allow the film or sensor be exposed to light from the lens.
It's why they're a bit noisier and you can't look through the viewfinder when you click the shutter.

Point and shoot cameras, digital ones, use electronics to display the scene through the lens on an LCD screen instead of a viewfinder, so there's no parallax error there either. The point is to, well, point and shoot.

My constant problem with the error, though, has nothing to do with the camera itself and all to do with the panoramas I've been trying to make over the past several years.

I've written about panoramas and generating them on here before. Originally I'd explained that using Hugin was much easier than PTGui. I've had more experience with PTGui to know now that it's perfectly possible to generate your own control points from scratch. Just go to 'Advanced.' Either way, I've also found that PTGui isn't actually as useless as I originally found it to be. As long as it was an easy panorama with nothing close-up.

The real problem, however, that has probably always been at the root of things, is parallax error.

I've seen amazing panoramas, equirectangular, all over the place and created using PTGui. They're spectacular and amazing, and have no errors. I'd be in wonder at how they do it. On Flickr there are entire photostreams that are only dedicated to those kinds of panoramas/planets. They're all, well, perfect. And they're panoramas that were taken in all sorts of places, both easy and difficult positions. There's one Flickr user that uses a 10mm lens, does them hand-held, only takes ten images, and uses Hugin, and his results are incredibly perfect.

Recently I got myself a 6.5mm fish eye lens, for my birthday. It's full-frame (not circular) and it's nice, although third-party (I have to manually focus myself, as well as the aperture). With this acquisition, I thought I'd have a lot more ease of stitching. Less images to have to take as well as the fact they're already distorted should make it almost no burden at all.

I was quite wrong.

The thing is, with fish-eye lenses, because there is distortion to begin with, the potential for parallax error is a lot higher. It's much easier to have things change between images because it's already distorted visually enough. Everything just got harder for me instead.

In my case, I've got almost everything to make panoramas as flawless as that Flickr user. I just need, as any panoramic photographer needs, a special kind of tripod that eliminates this parallax error problem.

The way it works, the end of the lens doesn't move anywhere. It just changes viewing position - without doing anymore than rotating. When I use my normal tripod head, my camera revolves around the central point when the end of the lens should be positioned there and rotating at the centre of it.

The two images (which should be next to each other but won't let me put them as such) explain parallax error in action: in one image the corner of my gazebo is shown with my shed at the left in the background. Then, when I moved the camera for the next image, the shed was more central in the background. The pillar itself is at a slightly different angle. The software, when it stitches, has trouble arranging where the pillar should go in accordance to the different backgrounds of each photo, and ends up either multiplied, cut up in sections, or partially erased.

Until I get the proper tripod head, I will have these problems. Panoramas like this can be, and are, tricky things to work with. Panoramic tripod heads are expensive; when I looked online the nodal ninja head everyone uses was about $200.

I won't be investing into that until after I begin college.

For now, I'll keep trying my best in panoramic photography. It's not like I am destined to fail at good images just because I don't have this particular piece of equipment yet. But if you're going into creating those cool, perfect 360/180 degree equirectangulars, a fish-eye and panoramic tripod head are going to be your best friends.
...And the software and minor knowledge of it as well.
Parallax error is your worst enemy.

Justin C.

Passersby

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 18:23:00 +0000

The vast majority of them like to use my backyard as an access point to Greenbank Road.

In the last year since we've had a path installed (and before that as well) it's been common for random people to use my gate on to Greenbank Road from my street, or the other way round.

Kind of fed up with this commonality, as well as the fact that, having the lock off the gate for barely an hour and someone uses it (they appear to take the first opportunity they get) I wrote to my city counselor to see if that would work.

This was the result:

Since that link won't last forever I've included a snapshot of the section of article in the Barrhaven Independent. You'll have to enlarge it to read it. The black bars was to enable it to upload to Facebook (it was too skinny otherwise) and I think they kind of help make the words easier to see.

I figured if I could give the matter some exposure in the paper by asking Jan Harder to bring it up in her column, the matter might be looked at better and make people aware. It happens. Not just to me but others as well no doubt.

I used to 'write' for the Barrhaven Independent when I was in high school. It was a co-op thing but I was never in their offices, I was doing school events instead. Now I'm the one brought up on a matter of trespassing because it happens on my property.

I think it was a good idea to notify my city counselor. It won't particularly stop the trespassing completely (it's stopped already due to the annoying, tedious lock I have on the gate, something I didn't want to have to use) but it will bring the matter to the forefront of issues and make people aware of them.
Besides, your counselor is there to serve your community. If you have a problem or an issue regarding the state of living in your neighborhood or on your street, just e-mail them.

Justin C.

Dancing in Receiving

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 18:07:00 +0000

It was a pretty funny segment of dream I had. When I think about it.

It wasn't long but it was fun and happy. How often are my dreams so fun? I don't know.

Beginning, it had me at work, unloading a truck like usual with my co-workers. At first it seemed like it would barely get done since it was taking awhile. The main receiving area was still empty, things were being pushed and stored down the aisles.
Then, 'MMMBop,' a song by Hanson from 1997, began playing on the radio. Loud.

Around this point the receiving area was suddenly filling up quickly with associates from every department in the store. Largely young ones around my age, and many that looked like they'd gone to the same school as me. Perhaps one of my co-workers had made a page saying receiving was open for garbage and cardboard (as it is where the baler and compactor is). And every department, McDonald's included, had come rushing to the back at the same time.

People were standing and grouping about. I began dancing and singing (inaccurately, at first, and in falsetto to match the young brothers' voices) the song. Very quickly it caught on...and receiving became a dance floor to Hanson's 'MMMBop.' Led by me.

Only the two people from McDonald's didn't join in. They disappeared into the truck, suddenly mostly empty, and watched, either with disbelief or scorn.

I flirted about between people, ruthlessly moving about and singing, and constantly glancing into the truck because one of two friends I have in real life work there and were watching. I pretended to play bass to the song as well. I even think I tried to crowd surf as well, but I landed on my back on the floor instead, though still joyfully.

The song was loud and clear. It impresses me that, now awake, I could not remember every verse and part of the song from start to finish as I would have had to hear it clearly in the dream. Yet the song was perfect.

In real life, the song was written completely by the three Hanson brothers. I think it's a pretty neat feat for them at that age (they were 12, 14 and 17 at the time) and the song's message is pretty positive as well. If you see past the almost gibberish-sounding main chorus lyrics and pay attention to the verses and things, it's largely all about keeping your best friends around, never losing touch with the ones you care about most and essentially keeping your friendships alive and close.
It's like an anthem on friendship.

"You have so many relationships in this life
Only one or two will last
You go through all the pain and strife
Then you turn your back and they're gone so fast
Oh yeah
And they're gone so fast, yeah
Oh
So hold on the ones who really care
In the end they'll be the only ones there
And when you get old and start losing your hair
Tell me who will still care
Can you tell me who will still care?"

In the end it's just a great segment of dream. It lasted about as long as the song does. Maybe it was an alternate music video? With a setting in a Wal-Mart receiving area? And dancers that are associates? And what's with the side plot of McDonald's employees (I know) hiding in the truck to watch like that?

It's interesting. But all in all - it was just a fun dream/music video.

Justin C.

Pilot, The

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 06:19:00 +0000

People don't recognize the name 'Madness' outside of Europe. Not very many, at least. Especially if you're under forty years of age.

I find it funny that if you're forty and over, and American or Canadian, all you can think about in relation to the band is their one-hit wonder 'Our House.' And if you're under forty and American or Canadian, all you can think about in relation to the band, at all, is that Maxwell House coffee commercial that uses 'Our House' as a jingle. Or that Verizon commercial that, for no real beneficial reason, turns the song into a Christmas jingle.

I say all this because, for such a band that is almost entirely unknown, they were pretty, well, big in many ways. They actually had over twenty hit singles in Britain and similar commercial success elsewhere in Europe. They also helped influence the then-new music video medium with their creativity. What's more, they wrote, produced, acted in, and otherwise created and marketed an entire film on their formation.

They also, though it didn't last, created a television comedy series based on themselves and their crazy moniker.

Do today's bands have all of that? Do artists and entertainers of the present day - say acts like Katy Perry, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, or that "LMFAO" pair - have feature films and television series about them? Sure, they have the big hit singles everyone under forty knows well, and their stint as a guest artist on Saturday Night Live (let me add here that Madness was a musical guest on Saturday Night Live on April 14th, 1984) but otherwise I doubt they accomplish that much.
I could be wrong in my chosen ignorance, and therefore biased and close-minded to the present day's big acts that could be more successful than I choose to entertain, but let me tell you that every day I go into work as an unloader at Wal-Mart, I am forced to listen to the music that comes out of their radio, which is always tuned to the "Hot 89.9," so I know a little more than one may think of how everything sounds like today and what it's like.
What's even better is when some of my co-workers dance to or sing the auto-tuned vocals. Or, even more amazing, one of them will bring their iPod and speakers in, turn it up full-blast, and we're all treated to the best in electronic dance pop music, or just essentially what everyone my age listens to.
God. God, god god god....

Returning to the pilot Madness filmed in 1983 I believe, I found it on YouTube today. I think it's pretty cool. They had already done their film, as well as done many music videos, and now they were branching out into comedic, episodic television.

The screenshot YouTube shows there seems to be showing Lee Thompson dressed as his mother in the program.

The idea behind it was that Madness became the new British government, with Suggs as the Prime Minister. Written by Ben Elton (who hosted/narrated a later Madness documentary) and Richard Curtis (who later wrote all the Mr. Bean episodes of the early 90s) it's a twelve-minute television pilot in the comedy genre.

It never aired or got anywhere; at the time of the conception of the idea and interest, Mike Barson was announcing he was leaving the band by the end of the next album, so he doesn't appear in the pilot. The whole idea was later shelved, with the series never being produced past this single pilot episode.

The way it probably ended up on YouTube was because of the big 30th anniversary the band celebrated in 2009. A special boxed set of re-released albums and special extras was released in 2010, containing the 'never-aired, never seen' pilot episode. Then the uploader of the video simply put it on there, having the boxed set themselves.

Having seen it, it's quite interesting. It's also funny to an extent, but to give it a professional-style review, I'd end up saying that it probably appeals to pre-teens more than adults, largely for the very simple humor that's derived from homographs (i.e., words that are spelled the same but have different meanings) and slight miss-communication.
For instance, at the beginning, the band are shown struggling with a heavy case and wondering where Lee Thompson (Thommo) is. It turns out he was inside the case, misinterpreting the directions "come along in case we need help" as "come along in case" - being physically inside the case.
Later, Suggs (posing as the Prime Minister) is asked to broadcast an address to the country. He simply gives out someone's address and asks the public to "drop them a line" since they haven't gotten any mail recently.

It is funny in a more adult way sometimes. At one point Carl (Chas Smash) is crying at the table everyone sits at, and Suggs asks why, claiming he's 'British.' Chas explains out of nowhere that his girlfriend left him for a 'sugar daddy' (a much older man); it is then further realized that it was his girlfriend's daddy ("I thought I recognized him" says Chas). He then explains they were in bed together. There's more adult-themed humor.

I find that part funny largely because it's just out of nowhere, and sudden, and so un-related to the real problem in the story line.

For the most part, it's a very non-sensical TV pilot with a lot of ridiculous gaffes. There's that "scary maniac" character that his followers listen to for very unusual reasons. Kind of childishly, they go back and forth throughout their plot line chanting the wrong things and getting stuff backwards. What annoys me throughout the entire show is the way Madness songs are constantly played in the background. It is Madness, yes, a band is starring in their own TV show, but it's not like a commercial for their songs. Their songs are another matter entirely. I would think that one or two would feature in the credits or somewhere in the background occasionally, but not continuously like that. Otherwise, one just gets distracted by the music. I think keeping the music going throughout the entire thing shifts the focus to it and not the story line.

Songs by Madness featured throughout their film Take it or Leave it, but they were very occasional and in the background, and matched the tone of the scenes or atmosphere. And they weren't that loud.

It's not bad and all in all, it's a good effort. The scene where the band play their mothers is good. I'd make it slightly more mature (sometimes it looks more like a child's theatre performance to me than like a comedic television show) but otherwise it's all good fun. It's a great showcase of something they tried to do, and I like their effort. Plus, like I said, how many acts these days do their own films, influence mediums, and even try their hand at their own TV shows? Unless it's reality TV of course. And yes, there are some out there, I'll give you that (all I can think of is Reba). Otherwise, it's one more thing I like about the band. They're regarded as a National Treasure in the U.K., and they rightly should be. Not because I'm biased or like them, but because they really made the big effort - and did so much!

I'd like to see Kanye West do something like that. Not a reality TV show.

Justin C.

Free from Cal - that place!

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 05:12:00 +0000

After about six years, today I finally saw, in person, a big father-figure to me.

When I was a younger child, my father's (and uncles') best friend James was always fun to be around and to look up to. I was always laughing in his presence. He was quite the father figure. When my dad wasn't even around, like when he was in Africa or somewhere in Europe/Asia, he'd fill in in a way. Like taking me on trips to the cabin with my cousins for instance. At the time I used to refer to him as 'uncle' James.

The last proper time I saw him was my father's wedding in 2003. After that, he moved, like everyone does, to that grand ol' place in Alberta that hosted the Olympics in 1988. I would see him in passing when I was fourteen in 2005, then I would be completely out of touch with him for the next six years, until I indirectly got his e-mail through a message my father sent to myself and him.

That was December last year. The first thing he learned about me was my loss of a significant one I loved in his own city.
That surprised him quite a bit. I'm sure it was kind of funny and ironic as well.

I would later hear his voice again in years in April of this year when my father called him out of the blue and he wanted to speak with me. His first words, no kidding, were "hey, I've got a tail on your girlfriend here, I know where she lives, goes to school..."
That was a pretty funny joke, if not out of date.
I would later come to know that he would be arriving for a visit on the 15th of this month. After about a full week, I needed to find some time so I ended up at my father's today, where his son, someone I haven't seen since they were a year old, was playing with my half-brother. Then he came.
Finally.

It was finally great to speak with him and share what had been happening, our interests over the years and all that. I figured out why he left - it turns out he moved because his wife wanted to live there. We played guitar (I rescued my acoustic from my father's basement) and stuff. I outlined the ironic twist that had to do with a girl, where he lived, and what happened, out of his interest. He explained he rarely, if ever reads my blog. Cementing my beliefs of where those views come from. He also casually explained the lack of raccoons where he lives, and the milder weather - "it never gets hot enough during the summer. I hate that." He knows the guitar inside-out.
I intend on seeing him again soon (he's not leaving just yet) and to my surprise it appears he'd rather be here than there.

There was one huge thing we cleared up that had been fun and intriguing in my childhood: I have a memory of a car ride in which I was in the back with James. I was probably six or seven. He had me laughing and contented like usual. At one point, he began singing "in the white room, with the black curtains..." a few words later (that I have forgotten) and then he goes "wha-o-wha-o..." just this sudden blast of what I thought at the time was gibberish. Gibberish that I found so funny and out of nowhere the memory is a funny, warm one. The words he'd sung before were filled with such expectancy...then this sudden "wha-o..." it was hilarious. I guess it was my childhood innocence really.
When I brought it up, and said the phrase 'white room,' he instantly remembered, largely because what he'd originally been singing was a real song.
Thinking of the child I once was, I had no idea nor any reason to believe that was really an actual song. I just thought he had been making the expectant words up just to make me laugh with that sudden outpouring of gibberish at the end.
Actually, what he'd always been referring to was a real song by British group Cream. Released in 1968 and a 'radio staple,' according to Wikipedia, the guitarist, Eric Clapton, uses a wah-wah peddle to achieve the very effect that James was mimicking, the "gibberish" that made me laugh. It's on YouTube.
That basically cleared up a big, funny, happy childhood memory. Wow.

It's extremely pleasing and happy to see someone in person again after a long time in stupid, uh, Calgary. He's the only one I've been able to see, now. I'm really pleased. It was cool listening to him explain my uncle Jim's platform when he ran for (and became) head boy at Robert Borden (nowadays it's "co-president" and like his father, my cousin Jamie just graduated from Borden as co-president himself. The Bissetts were always mainstream at that school...)

I'll see him again soon. We'll jam together soon as well (though I'll preferably have my bass instead) and I'm sure more things will get cleared up and talked about. He's a very important person in my life, at any rate.
Quite important.

Justin C.

"Mistakes"

noreply@blogger.com (Justin S. Campbell) — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 16:56:00 +0000

It's probably one of the more pessimistic songs I've ever heard from Madness. I knew, before I'd heard it, that it was their first b-side.

It was the B-side to their second single 'One Step Beyond...' (their first single was 'The Prince' but its B-side was a cover of the real Prince Buster's song 'Madness,' where the band gets its name).

I heard it once a bit of a while ago and found I didn't really like it largely for its ending - there's this tough drum-led, bad luck-sounding pessimistic sound to it.

Much time later I would hear it (but not recognize it) in the band's film Take it or Leave it. There's a scene in which Mark Bedford, the bassist, joins the band for rehearsal for the first time (being well-dressed for the occasion) and after Mike Barson tells him the notes, they begin playing that song (well, rehearsing it, and with then-lead singer John Hasler on vocals and former drummer Gary Dovey on drums).

In the film I kind of liked it, or liked the sound of it. I wondered what it was (not realizing I'd heard it before, which is very unusual for me) until earlier this week when the big Madness keyboardist on YouTube (not Mike Barson, a guy who does perfect covers of Mike Barson) uploaded a fifty-five minute video of him playing an entire live performance set of their songs on organ. 'Mistakes' was in the set and he played it. And I instantly made the connection.

The rehearsed version of the song is different in beat and bass a little, but essentially it sounds the same. I looked for a proper recorded version of the b-side and listened.

My reaction was what I begin this post with. Probably the most pessimistic or worrying song I've heard by them.

I have a large reason to think it was written by Mike Barson, who was always regarded as the pessimist in the band. In the film he's the guy who doesn't think they'll go anywhere often, though this pessimism is also what helps the disciplinarian in the keyboardist, as he was essentially the musical director in the band; most of their best songs were written by him. He's the one who's probably painted as the leader the most. He kept everyone in order.
Checking online my expectation holds - it was written by him. The lyrics all talk about the horrible things that make life hard, or how easy it is to lose or fail at things and the bad outcomes of that. It begins with "It's not so easy to find out later, about the necessary skills for survival."

The music is much the same; the bass sounds worrying and like its constantly harping on something.

As the song is negative, it also sounds very much like it was recorded when the band were not yet perfectly skilled at playing things smoothly. The drums might sound slightly off or out of temp now and then, and Suggs (the lead vocalist by that point) sometimes struggles with fitting words into verses. He has to scramble to say 'opportunity' at the beginning of one verse due to how he sings the rest of the song.

The piano/organ is its usual high standard, and the bass is right on. The guitar plays a very simple bit of notes that also shows the limited range of its player as well (in the beginning, it has been noted by the band, the only real good instrumentalists were Mark, Mike and Woody on bass, keyboards and drums, respectively). The sax isn't bad though. I like the keyboard.

Again, I don't really like the ending because it gets too hard-off-sounding. Slow, dramatic drums, a guitar repeating over and over, everything sounding like something bad is about to happen...

I'd give the music a B- and the lyrics a C+.

The conversation at the beginning is probably some sort of radio interview with what sounds like the band's manager Dave Robinson. Another song called 'Nutty Theme' (which I have never heard before) starts after the song, but listening to that is your decision. I have nothing to say about that.

Justin C.