This Photograph is Proof

While in Geneva and surrounding areas I find myself discovering things that I think others from back home would appreciate. Luckily I have recently purchased a cell phone with a camera, so while I may not have my giant SLR strapped around my neck at all times I still have the opportunity to capture these things to share with you all. Consider this the first of, what will hopefully be many, blogs falling under this category:

Random Crap Found In Geneva and Surrounding Areas Captured on My Cell Phone Camera

this photo is for Nikolett. Back in the day when we both lived in the 'village' and both attended those great ol 'corn roasts' and skating parties, we would frequently return to her house to watch hiddeously bad family channel movies. One such film, was "Johnny Tsunami" about a snowborder turned surfer...or surfer turned snowboarder...anyways he was discriminated against cos you know snowboarders aren't surfers....or surfers aren't snowboarders...people didn't like him...but his grandfather did, he liked him so much he called him porno. "hey porno" became a frequent saying between us. And now, 6 years later, and while in Geneva, in the grocery store, I discover the sequel, advertised in the video section. It looks like Johnny has become a skater, it also looks like he changed his last name to Kapahala. Maybe he was put into witness protection because those snowboarders beat him up and he had to point them out in a lineup. Or maybe his grandad took that 'hey porno' thing too far. Either way there's been some drama, obviously, and it looks like now he's a skater and that means that there can only be more drama! oh boy!


So around the time that Laura was consulting with me about her halloween costume i found this car with this strange zombie sticker on the hood. I figured it was suitable to take a picture of to show her as all her costume ideas involved her being zombified. You know, Rizzo from Grease....but as a zombie....a zombie werewolf.....a thug that was zombified....a zombie that was a zombie - you get the idea. Anyways I figured if she ever came to Geneva then we would have to find this car so she could hot wire it and drive around in the zombie car. It just seemed suiting.

This goes out to all my Degrassi hommies. Pretty much, story here is, I was in Champion, the grocery store in Ferney, France that we go to once or twice a month for cheap food, and as I was wandering the book section (its more of a small one room mall than a grocery store) I found these gems - French Degrassi books. I was, to say the least, excited and dumbfounded. I was so freaking happy too that I had my cell phone one me and that I could take a picture of this, I mean who would believe Degrassi would make its way to France if I didn't take a photo for proof. Damn, I'm so Canadian it hurts.

Take Me Anywhere

Somewhat of an overdue photo / video blog.

VIDEOS

Venice, Milan and Paris

song: Memorize the City The Organ

(watch it all my friends, watch it all)




The E Tower
song: Guilty Cubicles Broken Social Scene





PHOTOS
From Jo's going away dinner.

wannabe

Steph and I are going to see Spice Girls in London, on January 13.
London + Spice Girls = beyond awesome.


i'm so excited that I'm jealous of me.

saturdays reprise

had something of a productive weekend.

• i got my guitar restringed, which i had been meaning to do since september
• however it's dangerously out of tune, and while i can simply retune it, im scared that the strings might break again, and further more, the bottom e string seems to be perma broken, becoming actually physically lower than the other strings when tightened, then when loosening, bouncing back and scaring the crap out of me. i want to take it in to get fixed but i also don't want the music people to laugh at me. its quite the predicament.
• I did three loads of laundry, all in succession - which is so totally unheard of
• I went to two squater's bars and when warning a friend that she'd get herpes from the bathroom, I decided that it was a pretty cool place. This makes me wonder about my standards for cool - apparently it means as grungy as possible - or just, unusual. I guess.
  
• I bought new sneakers - that i had been meaning to buy since july. they were on sale and i got them at a really decent price.
  

Things I didn't do this weekend that I should have:

• GRE words - I let that fall by the wayside this weekend, and I should probably get more of a move on since I promised myself that I should be starting practice tests by December.
• Freelance - I got a couple of things done but when I came into work to work on it I spent more time calling people or trying to call people or watching videos on youtube than I did working and I only went through a couple of the emails in my inbox - that just sit there and mock me - those stupid emails. stop mocking me emails.
• Clean my room / do dishes - I kind of tidied a bit, but my room needs a bit more effort, its not as bad as it has been, but I'd like to keep it a bit cleaner for the sake of my sanity and health - especially seeing as how cold its gotten
• Buy work shoes. I had to wear crocks with socks (rhymes, and I will be changing into flats) to work because my flats will not keep my feet warm in this weather and I need shoes to wear to work and to keep my feet warm.

So we'll see how this week goes, maybe I can get some of that stuff done before next weekend, if not, then I know what my plans are at least.

Also, I know its rare, but if anyone from Geneva reads this - have you noticed the girl that unicycles out side the foyer on weekends?

I left Gilberto's work station a mess on the weekend and he's mad at me. And I'm crying inside. But not on the outside, because I don't cry there. Stop mean Gilberto, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. STOP! HE KEEPS HITTING ME! ABUSE! ABUSE!
ok I'm done with the melodrama. All I did was take out his head set and move his monitor. geez. OCD.

encircle me

it works

when the flag changes colour

I skipped french class and wrote this instead. Pretty crap of me I know. Might as well use up all my absences though so that I don't start skipping when dude is teaching something I don't know - for now, I pretty much fill out the sheets in two minutes and wait and wait and wait until he takes them up. More importantly, to the point...

I saw Feist last night. Amazingly. Not 'the concert was amazing' (which it was - but I'll get into that later), but amazingly as in 'amazing that someone, anyone, was performing in Geneva in the first place'. It is quite difficult to find concerts in Geneva. Actually, that is not completely true. In the summer there are plenty of open air shows and various types of performances. There is also something of a classical music culture, or so I've been lead to believe by quite a few travel websites. However, to see a concert featuring a headlining act that is English speaking, and relatively well known - at least for the likes of me - is incredibly difficult if you are restricting yourself to finding such entertainment in Geneva. Granted, you could travel outside of Switzerland and take off a couple of work days to see shows in France or Germany - where, it seems, every band I could possibly want to see, is performing. Or you could hop a train and spend the night in the Zurich or Lausanne train station, and take a morning off work. But it all hardly seems worth it. The tickets to see Feist were 65 CHF as it was, and I can't imagine paying that plus a plane or train ticket. Furthermore, musicians take the weekends off, which means that if I were to travel outside Geneva, then I have to take a day or half day off - all for a concert...though, this does seem like something I would do, and provided the funds or correct timing, I probably will do it eventually.

Anyhow, I bought the tickets to see Feist quite awhile back. In fact I was so excited that she was coming to Geneva that I immediately charged 4 tickets to my credit card without having even confirmed with anyone - nay, even asked anyone - that they would join me. Luckily, I was able to find a multitude of people eager to attend the concert, and even when travel plans or illness interrupted one persons chance to see Feist, it was quite easy to find a replacement concert goer. And so I had in my grubby little hands, for over a month, tickets to see Feist live. And I and Gilberto Ena and Nadia (the aforementioned person inflicted with illness who had to find a replacement incredibly last minute) began trading songs and slowly building excitement until the day finally arrived.

The concert was held in a small theatre quite close to our Foyer. It didn't have second or third levels, and thus provided just the right amount of intimacy for the concert - though, Gilberto would disagree. Perhaps I felt that it was 'just intimate enough' because we had fantastic seats. We were 6 rows from the front, just at the beginning of the incline of seats, so that our eyes were pretty much perfectly parallel with the stage and no one's head was blocking us. We were close, but not so close that we were straining our necks to look up. The show began with a performance by Bob Wiseman - and I use the term 'performance' quite intentionally. Previous to the concert I had 'stolen' a concert poster that Steph found for me from the window of a shop. On the poster it advertised 'Premiere partie Bob Wiseman' - so, the day of, Gilberto and I checked out his myspace, cbcradio3 profile and website. I pretty much closed each window as soon as I opened it, as everytime one of his non-melodic harsh folk pop songs blasted into my eardrums I cringed and reacted the only way I knew how (apple + w). I questioned Feist's choice for an opener, and warned our fellow concert goers 'I don't know about this guy, I'd be happy missing him'. Well of course, Bob's music and artistry is taken completely out of context on the internet, and when he began his show with a short black and white film played off his mac book onto a screen while he provided the soundtrack on a synthesizer, I knew I was in for something different. The one man show was actually quite entertaining, combining quite a bit of humor with his pop folk and homemade videos. I nearly cried myself laughing during his songs about David Geffen and the girl who was dead inside (I am cringing now that I don't know or remember the correct names of these songs). His music was filled with Canadian references, and it honestly made me feel at home watching him. His set lasted about 40 minutes, and if I hadn't been holding a 65 swiss franc ticket with "feist" printed on it, I would have been quite happy to watch him for another 40.

After his set, and an intermission, Feist appeared on stage under very low lights. She began her set with "When I was A Young Girl" - which initially surprised me, as I anticipated her beginning with something more aggressive. An assumption that has probably been born out of the sudden, well deserved, success that Feist has been receiving (besides aren't all rockstars supposed to just ROCK OUT). She followed that song with two or three more slower ones (I have the set list on my cell phone, and will probably publish that once I charge my battery) before launching into a more up tempo song. She performed, in total 17 songs. And probably one of my favourite moments during the show was when she was alone on stage, just her and her acoustic, and she perfromed three songs sans her back up band. One song was a Sara Harmer cover, another a Kevin Drew cover. The middle song was one that she admitted to never having recorded before, written durring a cold winter in Berlin when, for a year, she broke no new ground, and only wore the color red. "Anti Pioneer" - the kind of song that concerts are made for. While you can undoubtedly find bootlegged, handy cam, cellphone recordings of this song, nothing beats hearing it live. And its so incredibly suiting that she never recorded it. She is up there with her mic, her guitar, and one of those echoing sound recorder devices (the internet is on computers now? - my music knowledge doesn't really expand beyond 'yeah that cd is good' and 'mp3's are the herpes of the internet'). She records her guitar, and sings - with that voice of hers - dark, raspy, folky...what the heck adjectives are there to describe it? never enough. and her lyrics and voice are enough to make you fall inlove with the song. And she plays her guitar - so that there is her recorded guitar playing, and her real time guitar playing. And then she starts recording her voice, layers upon layers of her singing the same line, layers of her just singing. And then she is singing with it. And then it stops. And she concludes the song wonderfully, and you're pretty sure you've just witnessed the coolest thing on earth (not because you haven't seen one of those echo-ey voice recorder play back thingamabobs before - but because she weilded it expertley. because you feel like you just watched them erect the arch d triumph. someone splashed paint all over a sheet of paper, and that someone was pollock. you get what im saying right? doesn't matter, this bracket is too long and my metaphors aren't working). She ended the concert, predictably with 1234 followed by mushaboom. Followed by an encore of sealion woman (her cover of Nina Simone's See Line Woman). And this is where I complain.

The Swiss audience blows. They are lame. And apparently, its a cultural thing (there was a discussion at tea break today about it, and others have witnessed the extreme suckiness of swiss audiences). And I wouldn't be surprised if their lameness is why no one tours to Geneva in the first place. During 1234 there was a space perfectly left open for the audience to sing along, however, that space was filled with dead air. I am, quite frankly, amazed at how well Feist carried her self and her performance despite the lack of enthusiasm from the audience. After her trumpeteer .. trumpeters...whatever, after his (dude who plays trumpet) solo, she went on with singing, stopped her self and apologized for interrupting the audience's applause for his solo - you know, the applause which wouldn't have existed if Feist hadn't reminded the audience to be polite. Mind you I wasn't applauding, I was writing down the song name into my cell phone...Anyways, while I could tell people were enjoying the show - smiles, bopping their heads - no one was really doing much to provide much energy or feedback back to the performers. Going to concerts for me, and having a good time at them, revolves around a) the performers on stage energy and presence, and b) the energy and atmosphere created by the crowd. Its why Caro and I get pissed when people STAND infront of us at shows - don't STAND there, move, dance, jump, clap, do SOMETHING. Its a give and take relationship, and I can't imagine how frustrating it would be to be up there giving it your all, sharing your music with people, to get nothing back. Its one thing when you would go to a show by The Organ and you expect them to stare at the wall and not talk to you and just sing their songs while everyone else kinda slowly sways to the songs - I mean, its the Organ, read a review for crying out loud! But its another thing when you to a show like this one and the audience is near comatose. The only time they got on their feet, they clapped like they enjoyed it, they danced, was during the FLIPPING ENCORE. Christ, Geneva, where was your enthusiasm for 1234, Past in Present, I Feel it All, Mushaboom? HOW MUCH PREP TIME DO YOU NEED? Granted, Sealion woman was phenomenal, and if the energy from the performers was just freaking booming off the stage, but half the other songs performed certainly deserved more than just loud 'whoos' at the end. Seriously, before Geneva, I had never been to a concert where the artist didn't say they were excited to be in 'such and such' city, or that 'such and such city' was their favourite place to tour, or that they loved 'such and such city's' crowd. Since being here, I've never heard it (I KNOW IVE ONLY BEEN TO ONE CONCERT, BUT THATS ALL RELATIVE) and I think I know why! Seriously, Geneva, if you're listening, then take my advice - give performers a reason to WANT to come perform. I know you're used to being all stiff at classical concerts, but learn to show your appreciate for music - especially when the musician is right in front of you. I mean, all you really have is the jet d'eau, and chocolate, and thats really not too much to entice people to come play music for you. They have to want to see your reaction. All through the concert - by the by - not just at the end. Not just during the encore. The whole way through!

Sigh.
The concert, to say the least was great. I very much enjoyed it, and it reminded me of home (minus the crap audience and the fact that I was able to buy really good tickets a month after being on sale)

videotape

i'm walking to work on a sunday
and there is a slight breeze
and its cold but not so cold that i need more than my sweater
and the air is strikingly clean and each time i inhale it just smells clean and of fall and of leaves and of autumn
and the leaves are scattered on the front lawn of the building, and the lawn is orange and brown and green and the trees are orange and brown and green
and its sunny but not so sunny that i need sunglasses, its like someone applied a yellow filter to everything and its not bright but just sunny and light
and the horses in the field next to the building are eating grass and being lazy
and all of us are just moving slowly
and a monarch is fluttering by my feet
and videotape is playing on my ipod
and thom yorke is singing 'no matter what happens next, you shouldn't be afraid, because i know today has been the most perfect day i've ever seen'
and sometimes there are just moments

umbrella

courtesy of kasia

My Music At Work

I tried to avoid the music blog...but who am I kidding?

I downloaded In Rainbows yesterday off a torrent.
This seemed rather crude, however, as Radiohead has released the album digitally, allowing listeners to decide what they will pay before downloading. The least one could pay is one pence - the most - well - its up to you.
I downloaded it because, after some wreckless spending, I decided it was best to 'hide' my credit card - in other words, stash it in Steph's room and force her to decide whether my purchases are worthy before placing that oh-so-shiny piece of plastic in my grubby little hands.
So as it is, I did not pay for 'In Rainbows'. I feel terribly guilty, but I have every intention to pay. I have every intention to purchase the discbox set. Once I can afford it.

Now I've listened to the album, in its entirety, only once. Otherwise I have had it on shuffle, or selected songs to play. First reactions were:

• Second half of the album is stronger than the first
• 'videotape' may reduce me to tears provided right context and sound system
• I really enjoy the guitar on 'house of cards'
  
• 'nude' makes me want to kidnap thom yorke
• the album as a whole seems very cohesive, the songs work together whereas 'hail to the theif' - while you can undoubtedly listen to it all together, the songs were very much independent of each other. and thats not to say that the songs off in rainbows aren't, but rather that, they seem to talk to each other, they interact well.
  

Hopefully once I have given 'In Rainbows' a couple of more listens, I can actually develop a half decent thought to share.

Although Laura commented earlier that she loved the song I had in my profile, the week is up and a new song is up for your listening pleasure. I figured that since I've mentioned Tegan and Sara about thirty times the past three months, it was high time to stream another song off the con. It was a hard pick too. Do I go with the single or not? I decided to go with the con - title track and single. Although, I'm pretty sure I streamed this weeks ago, I figured I'd give it another go - especially seeing as how its been #1 on the independent Canadian music charts for a while, and #1 on the R3-30 for two weeks. And I'll try to keep my musings on this short, but I do feel that this is one of the best Canadian - nay - one of the best pop albums to be released in a really long time. Its the kind of album where lyrical, personal, and musical growth are evident, where production is spot on, and where the artist doesn't loose themselves in the process. I found a bootleg of one of their demo tapes and its amazing to see how they have evolved as artists, its also refreshing to hear that they haven't completely forgotten their roots after fame came round knocking with 'so jealous'. you know, its all kind of the opposite of gwen stefani. you hear that gwen? build a foundation and grow on it. don't just move when the market's hot. don't just buy cheaply made houses and decorate them by buying a discounted feng shui book if you don't actually appreciate or understand the culture behind it..

Not the Sun

Some musings...

Went to Lucerne on Saturday. We wandered the city and wandered into (another) church (more on that, and the trip, at a later date). While in the church, we quickly looked around, and I noticed a table of candles, and I went to go light two - as I had been doing when traveling to different churches. Lighting one for Nonnie and one for Basil. I started doing this after Basil passed away because it just seemed the right thing to do. As someone with little to no investment in the Catholic church or religion or faith, I was never quite sure why I did it, what it did for me, what I was supposed to do or say or think while I did. But I did it, because it felt right. And as I lit the candles in Lucerne I think I finally figured out what doing so meant to me. For the first time since I started lighting candles (and this is, of course, relative to the fact that I've only done it four times) I figured out what to 'say'. Previous to beginning this practice when my mom would take me to my grandmother's grave and leave me there to 'do my thing' I would stare at the grass and question and fight with myself attempting to stir something up so that I could actually do or feel something rather than just stare at grass and bugs. I felt incredible detachment at the grave stone which was always followed by small amounts of nagging guilt. especially at times when other members of the family were there they always seemed to be able to do more than just look down and there i was counting potato bugs. I would just stare and think "what am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do? Feign a prayer? I gave up on prayer when I was ten.. Have an imaginary conversation with this patch of land? This is too morbid, I want to go home. What am I doing, what am I doing...I like Jessica's shoes..." But now, I think, that despite all the religious connotations wrapped up in it, I finally figured it out. And I lit those candles and I sat and I did my thing. And I realized that this process is different for everyone, and that my difference makes me no different. Some may say the silent prayer - and more power to them - and some may have that imaginary conversation - and more power to them - and I do my thing, and I found the thing that give more power to me.

My mom has asked me whether working for a faith based organization has at all changed my beliefs; made me more spiritual, encouraged me to grow in my faith. And while the above anecdote would imply that perhaps I have, I'd have to say that I have not. But, what working for an FBO has done, has opened me up to more understanding of others beliefs. I have had the opportunity to enter into conversation with quite a few people about their faith or sense of spirituality, and rather than outright question and criticize and pass it off - as I would have done before - I have had the opportunity to learn about the personal power and freedom that they find in their religion, or the way their beliefs shape the person they are, or how it affects and guides them in the work they do. For example. while discussing the HIV and AIDS epidemic, while Emma was recalling some of the statistics followed by stories of people she had met and worked with living with HIV and AIDS, she ended the - rather depressing - conversation by stating that she wouldn't know how to deal with it, how to do the work she is doing, if it wasn't for her concept of God, her belief that something much bigger must be out there, and that this wasn't all blantant chaos. And I found that quite powerful. I found that incredibly important, to be able to turn to your faith in such a way so that you are able to help others and so that you have somewhere to turn to help you make sense of it all. And more power to her. And in conversation with Harold, as he described the feeling of community that receives from his church, I mentioned that that feeling of community and togetherness never existed for me when attending catholic mass - and whether it was because our congregation was too large or because we didn't attend frequently - for whatever reason, it never existed for me - but I could see and understand why he enjoys his church so much as it is more than just a place to worship - but it also seemed to be a place for discussion and sharing and togetherness in faith. And I understood why he would feel it powerful. And as we furthered our discussion about faith and religion, and I told him that I had turned away from my faith and religion a long time ago and that I felt many catholics in my generation did for many different personal and political reasons - he questioned where did we turn afterwards. And while I'm sure that others may have returned to the flock, and others maybe have personal spirituality, I admitted I didn't turn anywhere. I probably won't ever turn anywhere. And it mimicked a conversation I had with my mom. Where she asked me, after I retold the conversation I had with Emma - 'what is there for you? how do you deal with it all?'. And I shrugged. I don't know, because there isn't anything for me. I have taught myself so hard out of having faith, that although I find it powerful and important for others who do have it, I personally, just don't believe in anything. I don't have a sense of spirituality, not in the way others seem to. I don't have a personal God. I don't have a sense of faith. And I think - well thats ok too. And I'm comfortable and happy with that. And it doesn't mean that I'm a blank slate waiting for someone to find me and thrust an idea of God on me that I'm going to suddenly, happily accept. And it doesn't mean that I'm opposed to the idea of a god. And it doesn't mean that I can't understand other's belief in a god. And it doesn't mean that I'm an athiest. It just is what it is. And in my interview for this internship, when I was asked how I would deal with people from various faiths and positions, I said that I would be ready and willing to celebrate differences, that I had my own values and morals that I was not willing to compromise, that I didn't think I could compromise, but that I was interested in communicating with people, learning about their positions, about their faith, finding similarities and understanding how meaning was created for them, that I wasn't going to tolerate them (because I feel 'tolerate' and 'tolerance' is a bad, disrespectful word), but, rather, celebrate the differences. And as I rambled I wondered if this was something I could accomplish - because in theory I would have loved to be able to, but I had never been in a situation where I had done so. And I'm glad because I've making strides to. And I'm glad because I have.

so strange and likeable

dudes, i love this song on my blog
benefit of having a macbook, you can download all the stuff you want without worrying about viruses.
for example i've downloaded entire discography's, television shows, movies, and programs - and my macbook works like new. hell i have about 60 gigs worth of crap on here, and its still amazing. best money ever spent.

(this song is from the new kitsuné compilation - check it biatches)

anyways

the weeks are going by fast and i find it hard to keep up with this thing
its strange because i feel this nagging obligation to keep it up, and i think its because i know my mom reads it
my old blog i just wrote whenever i could - and oddly enough, i probably wrote more.
and i think it was because i wrote just like how i am now, random, short, concise (sometimes not) sentences. none of this 'and then this happened and then that happened'
but - travel blog - so i can't keep it up forever.

speaking of 'did this did that' the weekend was terrific. i think its because its the first time four weeks i didn't have to go anywhere, i didn't travel, i slept in, i cleaned, i organized, i relaxed. also we had some good nights out.
particuarly was jo's going away dinner, followed by gelato, followed by hooka bar (cherry flavoured sheesha by the way - not that great, seriously - i much prefer the orange Abed brought us on St. Patty's - if you're reading this and you suddenly remember St. Patty's day, then please erase from your memory the first hour at Absinthe, thank you).

it was sort of a bittersweet night anyways. it was nice because we had fun and there was good crowd and there was good conversation (you know like, if you were to be reincarnated as a dinosaur, what dinosaur would you be - and because i brought this up, we are now scheduled for a showing of 'the land before time' on Thursday) but it blew because we had to say good bye to one more person - and seriously, who the heck is going to replace my australian-american-jew friend? SRSLY? anyways we made a nice little going away present for Jo and sent her on her way , and today is what Tuesday? hopefully she's got to australia by now.

23 hour flight, like woah.

in other news, a new trip to plan - to the netherlands for the beginning of november
in other news, we finally finished the digital advent calendar (holy crap!)
in other news, i'm still addicted to 'the con' and i'm pretty sure if tegan and sara come anywhere near europe i'm shelling out the dough to see them
in other news, there is a new episode of weeds on tonight (aka, i downloaded it and will be watching it with gil and steph)
in other news, keeping busy at work, busy work. you know? photo galleries and stuff.
in other news, started french classes and am def. switching from level 2 to level 1, like i know what all the fingers are named and as if i can converse with that dude (prof) in french. bwah! no way man, i needs me some level one french - maybe i'll work my way up.

anticipate: photos and video.