It’s as simple as that, really. Exams were last week (did good on all of them… except math, but I just can’t do math) and I’ve also been working on a new website. Yes, I’m moving from here… eventually. I was hoping to have something up by now, but alas, not yet. These things take time.

Anyway, until then, I expect this website will not be updated - except maybe with a moved link.

In reality, I won’t miss very much about high school. The drama is constant, overbearing, and just plain ridiculous, and I no longer have the capacity to handle it. Our teachers are torn between treating as simple their students, or perhaps going further and being a friend. Everybody is concerned with the most superficial of things, and at the end of the day, nobody cares about anything. Who would miss this?

There are only two things that I am going to miss. My friends, obviously. I will still keep in touch with them as often as possible, but not seeing them everyday will be hard. The hardest thing, for me and many others, however, is we’re no longer allowed to be oblivious to everything out there in the real world. All of the sudden, we have to grow up, and that’s what is expected of us. I can understand that, but it’s expected of us in a pretty damn short time frame!

It seems like just as September rolled around and school began, we all of the sudden had so many life altering choices to make. Universities needed to be scoped out, money matters needed to be settled, and all of this on top of an increasingly demanding workload. Sure, getting into universities is not nearly as hard as everyone makes it out to be (trust me, if you have to start applying soon, don’t get to worked up) but it all feels so fast.

Maybe I’ve just been wasting my time.

For me, 2008 was definitely a year of two extremes: amazing, and dreadful. Luckily, it had more happy moments than sad ones. In fact, it never really had sad moments, but a lot of the bad things that happened just happened to be awful, whereas there were a handful of fantastic moments and some okay ones on the good side; however, I don’t wish to dawdle on the bad things because, considering the state of the world right now, I think 2008 had a century’s worth of negativity stuffed into it.

Easily the best thing about this year was going to see Goldfrapp in September. Anyone who knows me in the slightest knows just how much I truly adore their music and so going to see them live was truly an amazing experience. This moment in my life will be hard to top, but going to see Feist two months later in November was an equally enthralling experience.

Yes, 2008 was definitely a big year of firsts for me. First time seeing Goldfrapp, first time seeing Feist, and I got my first job in the summer. I’m still at that job, and since my first posts about how much I liked it, I’ve grown to despise it to an extent. 2008 saw me get my driving license, and so it marked the first time I have ever driven a car. And to finish it all off, and on New Year’s Eve nonetheless, 2008 was the first time I ever got really, really drunk. Not that I’m proud of that one…

But even so, as the title of this post suggests, 2008 left me very tired. Maybe it was just the alcohol New Year’s Eve, but even in all of the good times, I was left pretty exhausted from it all. I’m not saying that I had a bad year; I’m saying that I need to get my energy up for an even better 2009!

Britney Spears. What comes to mind when you think of her? Maybe it’s the infectious pop of “Oops!… I Did It Again” and “…Baby One More Time”, or the undeniably amazing “Toxic”. Maybe it’s her somewhat floppy acting attempt in Crossroads. Or maybe, like the rest of world, it seems, your mind is flooded with images of head shaving, crotch flashing, and millions of other papparazzi exploits. In the years since her infamous Madonna kiss and In The Zone, the world has watched as Britney released herself from the constraints of her heavily protected life and just went wild. She began to fall into emotional pit after emotional pit, her career plundering along with her. A comeback seemed impossible.

Yet in 2007 there was a slight buzz going around that, despite showing no signs of improvement, an album was on its way. A comeback seemed to slowly become a reality, but after a horrible VMA performance of her new “don’t call it a comeback” (because, really, it wasn’t) single “Gimme More”, and the release of her first in album in 4 years, Blackout, Britney continued to spiral downward. Hope was slowly starting to dwindle and the world was losing one of its best pop stars. As 2008 approached, however, it seemed as though Britney was making a recovery. Despite losing her license and her father taking full control of her life, as well as having to deal with her mother’s tell-all book and her 16 year old sister’s pregnancy, Britney began to emerge from the rubble. She went into rehab, and spent late spring and all of the summer in 2008 in the studios working with dozens of producers.

The result is Circus, a truly triumphant return to form and definitely a comeback for Britney Spears as the pop princess she used to be. A mixture of the sleek club groove of Blackout and the more hip-pop leanings of some of her back catalogue, Britney has not only released easily one of her best albums to date, but she also sounds truly involved with the music, despite only writing a few tracks herself. Unlike her previous albums, especially Blackout, it doesn’t feel as though Britney just showed up for a couple of days to drop the vocals and let the producers do the rest.

Opener “Womanizer” is an immediate, in-your-face anthem. Sleek, sexy, and pure pop goodness. It is a sure sign that Britney is on her way back to the top, especially since it was her first #1 Billboard Hot 100 single since “…Baby One More Time” 10 years ago. Following it is “Circus”, a track that harks back to older Britney with its clear RnB influence. The dance break near the end also signals for fans to watch out for a wicked routine during the tour. After a stellar opener, Britney decides to slow it down a bit with “Out From Under”. While some will easily skip over this track and head straight for the upbeat material, it is actually very good. Unlike most pop ballads, “Out From Under” sounds very earnest and should be released as a single at some point during this album’s era. The break in this slower material, however, is brief as right after “Out From Under” comes “Kill The Lights”.

“Kill The Lights” starts an excellent four-track run in the middle of the album. It is easily one of Spears’ best songs, ranked closely along the likes of “Toxic” and “Oops!… I Did It Again”. Take the sleekness of Blackout and “Womanizer”, up it four times, and add genuine sexiness into the mix and you get an idea of what your up against. “Shattered Glass” follows, and it too feels like a mix of old and new Britney. Then we have the somewhat controversial “If You Seek Amy”, whose chorus is so deliciously trashy you want to hate it but can’t. After this high tension three track run is the cool-down with “Unusual You”, which is a very well done mellow slow groove.

From here, Circus goes into a filler section, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less enjoyable. “Mannequin” has an odd allure to it with it’s sci-fi, heavy club beat; the S&M inspired “Lace and Leather” sounds like a poppier version of the funk beats from Justin Timberlake’s FutureSex / LoveSounds; “Blur” perfectly fits the bill as the pop ballad awkwardly placed anwhere in the album; “My Baby” shows off a surprisingly good vocal effort from Britney. And the bonus tracks are also nice additions, although the inclusion of “Radar”, which was actually a main album track from Blackout, is odd. All is forgiven, though, as it is actually a fantastic song.

So it’s all here: great production values, great writing, and Britney actually sounding involved with her music for the first time since 2004. Circus is a truly fantastic album, and definitely one of Britney’s best ever. With a tour planned for 2009, the comeback everyone doubted has finally happened. Even though there will be detractors, it is undeniable that even the sourest of critics are glad to have their pop princess back. Hell, with a set like Circus, Britney Spears has solidified herself as the new Queen of Pop.

Recommended tracks: “Womanizer”, “Out From Under”, “Kill The Lights”, “Shattered Glass”, “If You Seek Amy”.

92%

Not that I don’t like my website anymore, but I have felt very little drive to blog. I’ve been so focused on other things and trying to help other people deal with their problems I’ve totally ignored problems of my own.

So, just a quick hi, because honestly, I have nothing to say… Something’s not right when that happens, I’m sure.

P.S.: All you who can, pick up the new Holiday music collection at Starbucks; it features a very special “Winter Wonderland” by Goldfrapp.

So then, I got to thinking of who I would ever work with if any opportunity came up. I might have some pretty outrageous ideas here, but still, I’m sure it’s possible my dreams could come true. You never know what the future holds.

First and foremost, Goldfrapp is a group I would do whatever it takes to sing with or for. Alison and Will have both been expressing interest lately in doing either an opera or some choir pieces. To me, this is a great idea to expand their obviously talented capabilities into other musical horizons. If auditions were ever held for their opera or choir, I’d ship myself off to the U.K. (because that’s where they’d likely be) and sign up right away.

A music producer whom I really admire not only based on his talent but on who he is is Andrew Butler, the man behind the Hercules & Love Affair project. One thing I love is good electronic music, but singing over it would be damn near impossible in most cases with my opera voice. If anyone would be able to help me pull this feat off, it’d be Andy Butler, either alone or as part of Hercules & Love Affair. Hell, he pretty much did just that with Antony Hegarty on the song “Blind”.

Speaking of which, I’d love to be able to do a duet with Antony Hegarty. His strong, yet delicate, quivering voice never ceases to amaze in its ability to express true, deep emotion. If that never happens, I’d probably end up doing a cover of his song “Hope There’s Someone” because it is easily the simplest and yet one of the rawest expressions of sadness he’s written.

After turning Moloko chameleon Roisin Murphy into a full on jazz/cabaret chanteuse, and all over some of the most inventive jazz infused electronica ever crafted, Matthew Herbert is definitely one man I’d love to have the opportunity to work with. If he was able to discover such a distinctive type of sound from Roisin Murphy, I wonder what qualities he’d work off of in my voice.

Finally, I’d also love to do some work with pop classical composer Van Dyke Park, who did all the orchestration with Joanna Newsom on her fantastic and ambitious album Ys. His playful, lush, and slightly avant-garde compositions are nothing short of amazing.

So there’s my dream list of collaborators. If any of you were ever making music, who would choose to work with and why?

Anyways, I like to have music on pretty much all the time. It is especially helpful for when I’m working. It doesn’t matter what the task is (chores, cooking, homework, website maintenance), I always have something playing. Most of the time, I tend to put together playlists for the occasion and they usually contain most of the same songs.

Pacing isn’t really important here as most of the music is relatively upbeat to keep the energy flowing. The only time I won’t listen to upbeat stuff is if I’m reading, in which case, I need slow, somber music that isn’t as distracting. Moving on, here is a nice little playlist (sorry, no free downloads) that you can put together for a good work time soundtrack.

1. “Ooh La La” by Goldfrapp
2. “What Do You Want (The Breakfast Song)” by Annie
3. “Blind” by Hercules & Love Affair
4. “Yadnus” by !!!
5. “Satan Said Dance” by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
6. “Monster” by You Say Party! We Say Die!
7. “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb” by Spoon
8. “I’m A Lady” by Santogold
9. “2080″ by Yeasayer
10. “Down Boy” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
11. “I Fly” by CSS
12. “Melody Day” by Caribou
13. “Call Me” by Blondie
14. “Indigo” by Moloko
15. “Jimmy” by M.I.A.
16. “Genesis” by Justice
17. “Ready For The Floor” by Hot Chip
18. “Couleurs” by M83

I won’t be surprised if you blame me for being a little too hipster in some of my choices, but this does make for a nice backdrop to whatever tasks require you to stay awake. Of course, this is merely a suggestion, but I find music definitely helps with my productivity. Also, don’t feel it necessary to use these songs in the listed order.

I want to skip my birthday this year…

Then there are things we get for free that, really, we shouldn’t. Music, for instance, is easily the most popular download on the net and has been for well over a decade. It’s illegal, of course, but free. Now the allure is different: not only is it free, but now we’re beating the man to the punch.

Anyways, I really should get to my point. I have some free, legal music for you via the Urban Outfitters blog. They have this new project called Lstn where they compile a playlist of a bunch of up and coming indie artists, post them on their website, and offer them for free in convenient .zip packages for everyone to download.

• Lstn #1
• Lstn #2

A lot of the songs are incredible, and others merely okay, but they’re free, right? And we’ll all try anything once, especially if it’s free.

I added an important accessibility feature known as a site map. That page is going to be really hard to update as when you’re continually adding content, you kind of push the site map to the side. Last, but not least, I’ve updated the links page with a few more links in each section.

I’d also like to make a list of my current favourite website layouts that I’ve come across over the past few days of web surfing. Enjoy the eye candy!

• Neonglow: It’s simple and striking all at once.
• Intensify: The layout is very interactive without being overbearing.
• Qiann-Yu: Classic, elegant, beautiful.
• Eruanna: It’s creative without trying to hard.

As you can tell, it uses pretty much the identical styles of the last layout. This new version, however, is one that I find way more serene. Also, the text is slightly easier to read on it and overall it looks like I put more effort into it.

I can’t get my damn search form the work, though. I had one that worked on an older layout of mine, but no matter what I do, it just won’t search my website! Oh well, it looks pretty. I know, how useless is that? Until I get that sorted out, though, you all are just going to have to deal with a pretty, but useless, search bar.

Edit: Phew! Got the search bar working, so now it’s pretty AND useful! It was a silly mistake of which I won’t mention.

I also got that problem with the comment form fixed. I frigged around with it earlier and I guess I sort of disabled it. Sorry about that. Comments works again. I’m such a klutz; I shouldn’t be allowed to make websites.

Also, I feel I should mention where I got that tree design from because I obviously did not make it myself. Vecteezy is truly a fantastic resource for free vector art and I found the tree in this set. Enjoy!

I’m just so bored. Also, I miss food. All I can really do is drink lots of water and some juice, and sometimes have a Popsicle, but I can’t eat anything. That, and I’m not even hungry yet. This is a pretty rough way to lose some weight.

I don’t even care because I am dropping that course no matter what it takes. That thing they got to teach us is failing epically and no one is stopping him. Everyone is going to do terrible, and whenever we complain, he blames everyone but himself. He is the problem.

He is the problem.

I repeated that on purpose because it’s important to realize that he is the problem.

• Even though I had to work today, it wasn’t that busy. Now, when there are no customers, it gets pretty boring but it was the right balance of business and quiet today.
• I was let off about an hour early today.
• My friends came to visit me near the end of my shift, which was nice considering they were probably high.
• One of my favourite independent artists, Jesse Stephens, posted a new song this week called “Safe From Harm (Angel)”, of which I downloaded today and fell in love with.
• My parents went to a party and brought me back a dessert that is so good I want to bathe in it.

So there you are, a happy post. Now I’m off to kill myself to finally rid myself o this awful cold.