Scenes from South East Asia

CMW Continues

I made it out to Lee's Palace tonight, once again with he lovely Ariane Klassen and Chris White - the place was at capacity very early on in the night. I arrived just after 9:00 and had to stand in line for quite some time. Three girls behind me sung Joanna Newsom while the folks in front of me discussed how long the line was. Gar... my sense couldn't handle it.
Anyways, what I saw of the show was great! Unfortunately, I missed John Rae Fletcher, but caught Herman Dune, Basia Bulat and Elliott BROOD.
Tonight was my first intro to Herman Dune, but I quite impressed. I'm not sure if this is just me being crazy, but the duo's performance reminded me of Jens Lekman's show in KL. I'm not sure what it is -- maybe the way he would tell stories that led smoothly into song? In any case, the music was quite of a different sort than Lekman's. Anyways, I definitely recommend checking them out. Their newest album is Next Year in Zion.
Basia Bulat was very impressive, and the crowd loved her despite any technical problems that arose. I particularly fancied her last number Snakes and Ladders.
Tonight was also my first run in with Eliott BROOD (finally!) - they played a great set to a full house. They started with a very a dark and captivating song that definitely got people into it. Things got taken up a notch when they gave out various pans and kitchen appliances for banging. All in all, great times! I think its bedtime for this guy - L8tz

Canadian Music Week

Following my school assignment death week, taking the train back to toronto was definitely most welcome yesterday. On top of that, the lovely miss ariane klassen and her fellow chris white managed to get me a wrist band to Canadian Music Week happening all over toronto. So! upon my arrival back I was very excited to head downtown to see Human Highway at the Horseshoe Tavern.

This is the first time I've seen either Nick Thorburn or Jim Guthrie live - I was super excited going in, but did not expect them to be as amazing as they were. While their first album Moody Motorcycle is generally mellow, they managed to legitimately rock out on stage (can I say rock out? Does that make me lame? Does asking this just make me awkward? ugh.) -- needless to say I was delighted.

Also I fulfilled one of my goals last night: pretending to be a legitimate photographer and posing in front of the stage. Delicious. But hot! Geez... anyways, here are some pics from their set.

Nick Thorburn

Human Highway

Jim Guthrie

London in the winterspring

Hey,
Before I retire for the night, here are some pictures taken on the first pro-16 degree weather day this year!

Neverending stories about Northrop Frye

Hey blog friends

Well, school madness has yet to abate for me - but i think after tomorrow, things should feel a little less stressful. Tomorrow afternoon is the presentation I've been dreading for about a month... a 60-75 minutes one on one debate regarding the merits of Northrop Frye's communication theories. Its a pretty hot topic... though it may be a little too far removed from my life to argue passionately about. That having been said though, I've been preparing for a few weeks now - I dont have any arguments yet but my scope of Northrop frye-ness has increased steadily .

OK, so I'm writing this blog for two reasons a) as procrastination related time spending and b) as a creative way to get out some of my "NF-dog" ideas. Hey, perhaps you all might learn a little something something in the process as well... What follows is a little introduction to what our Canadian friend Frye is all about (most of this information comes from the book Canadian Commuication Though by Babe... there is some original Frye in there as well) - Enjoy! I know I will...

Frye's communication theories can best be understood by recognizing that they mostly stem from a broade ontological dialectic of subjective vs objective reality; a mythopoeic reality vs. a scientific one. It is clear in the way that Fryes osselates between the two perceptions throughout his career that this is a dialectic between two very fundamental worldviews. Frye felt that people generally accept or dwell on one of those two cosmologies:

The objectivist universe is one that exists independently of the mind: it is one to be observed and studied. Such a reality gives humans a very passive role in the general scheme of things. Frye was adament that a scientific and objectivitist reality points starkly to a universe devoid of meaning.

The subjective world view puts humans in the center. According to this, reality is a product of the human mind - every experience, every observation must be interpreted by the mind. Therefore all perception is a mental function and as such is subjective. Within this vision of reality is Frye's "mythopoeic" world view: this links perception, imagination, will, experience knowledge and truth.

From here, I want to dig deeper into this dialectic by moving on to Frye's "myth of Freedom" and its antithesis the "myth of concern".

The myth of Freedom derives from objectivist reality. The "freedom" here is the freedom deriving from the authority of impersonal evidence, production, observation and verification and logic. It includes social values such as objectivity, judgement, tolerance and respect for the individual - Frye writes that this value system and outlook engendered political and philosophical liberalism. He calls it a myth because it is a set of values and beliefs in a universe without any higher intelligence that our own.

Okay, so that's where I'm at now. Any thoughts on Frye thus far? I suppose I have many miles to go before I sleep. But I mean that in a metaphorical way - I plan to physically go to sleep very soon and get up at 6am. Ohh baby. Cant wait!

Anyways, sorry for the rather sporadic posts! But don't worry, I'm heading to Singapore roughly around the first of May, so I have many forthcoming adventures to ramble about

Until next time,
Keep it... frye?

-Andrewtown22

In the Waiting Line... for Tim Horton's.

If I could give any analogy for the massive amount of work that looms in front of me, it would be Running Man. Right now, I'm heading towards Sub-zero, but I can't even see or prepared for the creepy 80's LED light opera dude that awaits somewhere ahead. A weird analogy? perhaps.
I know the world probably doesn't care for the specifics of the gauntlet that lies ahead of me, but I feel compelled to make an ordered list of it:

1. Mainstream Media and Activism - 2000 words - Monday
2. Scenes of the Apocalypse - Midterm - Monday
3. Journalism Ethics - Seminar - Tuesday
4. Information and the Public Sphere - 1000 words - Wednesday
5. Journalism Ethics - 2500 words - 10 March
6. Canadian Communication Thought - 60-70 minutes seminar - 11 March

... Pray for mojo.

Adventures in Cold ... Through a New Lens

Hi Friends!
So
First things first. Many apologizes for my inexcusable absence from detailing my daily adventures - things just got really crazy, and then when they weren't crazy I didn't really have any adventures to blog about. Also, there was a period of time when my camera was nonchargeable due to needing a Malaysian power source. But, I now realize that my perceived state of adventurelessness isn't true! I'm back in London-town, and my camera is back up and running.

I thought for this entry I'd put up some of my photos from since I've been back in Canada. What follows is through a new lens ... i mean this in a few ways. In one way I literally mean I bought a new lens: a Nikkor 55-200mm with vibrations. Its pretty great, and I'm very excited about it. And sure, perhaps I've got new perspective as well. That doesn't seem TOO far fetched.

So what will be in this blog in the days to come? It's hard to say - I have many research projects and studying to do, so hopefully it won't get too dry or to complainy. In any case, I'm sure it will be... well... existent.