hnic anthem challenge

so i did it. i took the plunge and submitted my attempt to fill in the big shoes left behind by 'the hockey song'. at first i was pretty hesitant, but i figured i didn't really have anything to lose to at least try, so i threw something together using garageband (well, after i figured out how to work the program, haha), tweaked it a little bit here and there, and this is what i came up with.

i suppose the worse thing that can happen is that i don't win, but i'm not even really going into this with any expectations so i guess i'm in a pretty good place. let me know what you think.

mute to the math, whut?

gotta love mutemath. creative bunch, they are. (this is honestly one of the greatest, and most random, videos ever.)


speaking of darren king, check this out.

is that not madness or what. he's phenomenal. crazy yes, but phenomenal. plus he's hot so yah. bah hah. ;)

thanks liz, for introducing me to mutemath way back and for showing me these vids. you always did have great ears. :)

the fraser and the fitzsimmons

i went to see brooke fraser at the el mocambo this past wednesday and i must say, her voice is just as good and as beautiful live as it is on her cds. she put on a good show - her guitar playing, piano playing, and singing were all solid. not bad for a first-time concert in toronto. it was a great show for under $14 so really, on the music front, i can't complain at all.

william fitzsimmons opened for brooke and although i know a lot people will disagree with me, i thought that he did a pretty good job. his guitar playing was really impressive (at least to me since i can only dream of playing the guitar half as good as he does) and his voice was nice, breathy and soothing. yah ok, i'll admit his songs were a little depressing and maybe too relaxing for an opening act, but all in all i thought his music was pretty good. well, what i could hear of it anyway thanks to the rude people who comprised about 3/4 of the concert crowd. i honestly couldn't believe how incredibly annoying and moronic some people at the concert were, which leads me to...

...concert etiquette.

ok, if you're going to go to a concert, here are three things you should keep in mind:

1. Talking when an artist is playing.
This would be a HUGE no-no. When an artist is singing or playing, you stop talking. This is done out of respect to the artist and out of consideration for the people around you. Honestly, even though the really good ones make it look real easy, artists practice like crazy and put their hearts into their work, so show a little respect and listen. I don't care if you think their music is too sad and depressing so you decide you don't like them - when an artist is doing their thing, you shut your mouth.

2. Pushing your way to the front when clearly you were there last.
To all the people who think they can show up later and just push your way to the front, please get over yourselves. It is not ok and nobody appreciates it. This is especially true for groups of 3 or more people. It is not other people's faults that your lateness caused you to have to stand at the back or behind the pole with no view. It's first come first serve so back off.

3. Being obnoxious and loud in general.
This is just plain annoying for everyone around the obnoxiously loud, so if you're one of these types of concert-goers, please calm down. There's no reason to scream every two seconds or laugh like a bloody hyena on crack, so take a few deep breaths and at least try to be normal. And no, holding an alcoholic beverage does not mean you can be annoying.

so yes, if by chance you happen to be going to a concert, then try to keep these things in mind - i'm almost positive the people around you will appreciate it greatly. :)

brad doggett and jeremy "passion" manongdo

youtube is home to a lot of stuff. some of it is great, some is not so great, some is really awesome, and some is just plain crap. on the music front, these two guys are definitely part of the really awesome category.


this guy, brad doggett, does covers of a lot of songs from different genres; from britney to wyclef jean to oasis, this guy does it all and does it well. he may not be the greatest musically, but his videos and music have an authenticity to them, a 'grass roots' and feel if you will, that really appeals to me. it's just him being himself and his guitar. that, plus the fact that he has one of the nicest voices i've ever heard, makes him my favourite musician on youtube right now.


this guy, passion, is just plain solid. his guitar playing is solid, his voice is solid, and his music is solid. so good. he seems to do a lot of talking in many of his videos, so i'll just leave my description of him at that. haha.

...and now i must go and practice guitar, bye!

william fitzsimmons

i'm going to the brooke fraser concert in july and this guy, william fitzsimmons, is gonna be opening for her. i don't really know him, but i like him already. he puts my weak and sucky guitar skills to complete shame. (note to self: must get better. and soon.) like i needed another reason to be excited for this concert, but i got one anyway. can't wait!

from funk to pop

i'm not an avid concert go-er, but i ended up going to two concerts this month: victor wooten & sara bareilles. both great entertainers, both great musicians, both great concerts. the victor wooten concert was nothing short of amazing. all the videos of him playing are sick, but they're nothing compared to seeing his fingers flying and the sweat dripping down his face live in concert. it was a long concert (can't believe they played for pretty much 2.5 hours non-stop), but it was worth every minute of standing and the ache in my legs. haha. sara bareilles was an entirely different type of concert, but it was amazing all the same. i've always liked her and her stuff, but she was even better live! the only low-lights were being stuck behind the tallest couple ever (aghh, when she put her head on his shoulder i couldn't see a bloody thing) and the fact that my knees were killing by the end of the night, but that's ok. the music made it worth it.

two nights of listening to incredibly talent musicians (one of the guitarists had john mayer-esque solos - so good!) was really refreshing, although hard on my ears. (i swear after the sara concert i thought i was going deaf, no joke.) anyway, i fully recommend going to see these artists in concert. just make sure to bring earplugs.

brooke fraser | a l b e r t i n e

...like a breath of fresh air, this is music to my ears. and heart.

rachmaninoff and rosemary

this is happening this coming thursday at roy thomson hall. the repertoire as a whole is great, but i'm most excited about the fact that jon kimura parker is playing rachmaninoff!! and not just any rachmaninoff piece. he's playing rach 2 - my most favourite piano concerto of all time! you don't understand how much i love this piece. this concert is going to be sooooooooo great!!

too bad i won't be able to make it. woe to me, i am crushed. :( *sobs*

on an completely unrelated note, earlier this week (and for most of last week) i was feeling pretty sick - my nose was running away, i went through way too many boxes of kleenex, and i kept sneezing no matter what i tried. anyway, one day while i was adding another tissue to my tissue mountain, i heard my sister start to sneeze and at that moment i decided to attempt to be domestic and make us some chicken noodle soup.

i found some chicken broth in the fridge (leftover from dinner the night before) and started breaking/boiling some spaghetti noodles, and ripping apart some cold-cuts to put the 'chicken' in my chicken noodle soup. everything was going great until it came time to spice it up. i started going through our cupboards for "something green" (i was looking for oregano), but when i couldn't find any i decided to use what i could find - rosemary. word of advice: don't use it in chicken noodle soup. it will make your soup taste wierd and make you, the cooker of the soup, feel both sad for messing it up, and bad for the people drinking it.

other than the foul aftertaste thanks to the rosemary, i thought it was pretty good. oh well, i guess a little of the wrong spice can really mess up an otherwise great meal. (i could come up with some cheesy life-parallel here, but instead i'll leave that up to you.) ;)

update on my feelings re: sondheim

it is time for me to eat my words. well, maybe just chew.
sondheim isn't that bad. he's just horrible to have to sight-read.

my comment still stands for tesh though. he's just cheese. as in john cheese. i mean, cleese. (i love john cleese!) ok, maybe cheese isn't the right word for john tesh then - i definitely do not love him (not that i know him or anything anyway). or his music.

in other news, autumn is coming. can you feel it?

into the crap.

i really don't care if into the woods won a million awards, i don't like the music. and i when i say don't like, i really mean LOATHE. i'd choose the music of jason robert brown, adam guettel, or stephen schwartz over stephen sondheim's anyday. lemme put it this way: i'd rather listen to john tesh, and that is saying a lot. :P