My Song

So I've completed my song on Garageband but have yet to complete the slideshow of personal pictures to it. You know how it goes, set up a day when you aren't working to have a photo shoot and it rains. Then the next it snows. Then you decide to take pictures at the coffeehouse but it's canceled due to poor weather. Nice...I mean I'm not making excuses, I'm just blaming mother nature. :) So the slideshow will get put up soon when I figure out something interesting enough to do an entire slideshow of pictures on. In the meantime, you can enjoy my song without a slideshow, just to know that I've got part of the project done and the other half is in the works.

A Song in Review - We Own the Sky by M83

If ever a time should arise where you are craving a song to fill your longing for modern, yet tastefully nostalgic 80s sounds, then we have the perfect prescription for you. M83’s hit (We Own the Sky) is the song that you’ll want to indulge in, over and over again. Released in December 2008, We Own the Sky has become one of the latest spotlight songs of the popular indie band, M83. And by band we mean…Anthony Gonzalez. Yes, that’s right folks, another shy dream-pop band fuelled by one man. But before you write M83 off as that stereotypical band that hipsters tend to use and abuse, we ask that you give M83 a fighting chance.

Anthony Gonzalez, creator of M83, is a French musician who dreams of going back to the days when life seemed simpler. And what was simpler than being a teenager? On his newest album Saturdays=Youth it’s easy to see this nostalgic attitude mirrored in the simple synth sounds, electric guitars, and drum beats. Gonzalez says, “To do that, we tried to work only with instruments from the ‘80s…We worked only with analog keyboards, analog synths; we didn’t use any computers. The idea is to have a very ‘80s sound, but modern as well.” So where does this modern sound come from you ask? We found the answer was as beautifully simple as this album itself, through the unique and haunting vocals.

We Own the Sky begins with heavy, repetitive synth chords. Underneath the chords is a fluid sounding beat that avoids overwhelming the chords. Together the duo creates a sense of floating, freedom, even a wave-like pattern. Enter the vocals: light, shy, unique. Reminiscent of the unique vocal styling’s of Sigur Ros, M83’s sound can only be described as unique. Coincidentally enough Saturdays=Youth was recorded with the help of Ken Thomas who has also worked with Sigur Ros, The Sugarcubes, and Suede. There is a certain feeling that the listener hears in Gonzalez’s voice and to us it is shyness, adding in a shoegaze element to M83’s already diverse sound. Gonzalez himself has admitted to taking risks with this album and one of those risks was using vocals more than in previous albums. We applaud his confidence and hope to hear more of his shy, inspirational, and fluid voice in his future releases.

The lyrics themselves are fascinating, poetic and cryptic enough to keep the listener intrigued,

Secrets from the winds,
Burnt stars crying,
So many moons here,
Lost wings floating.

The words are poetic to say the least. We love the feeling that the lyrics of the song bring. It's almost a fading feeling, infinite floating, blissfully perfect. They fit right in with the beat, tempo, and rhythm of the song itself. While the lyrics become repetitive after some time, there’s something soothing that can be found when these words are repeated in a chant-like form. Gonzalez has created an anthem for his listeners, easily heard and deeply felt. Just like the song, the lyrics are slow and powerful, they touch your core. If this song doesn’t remind you of freedom, youth, and a warm meadow, you might need psychological help.

Gonzalez says he’s happy with the success that he’s had in North America with his music but what he really wants now is some recognition in France. “…With bands like Daft Punk or Air, they were really first famous in America and then after that they came back to France and had lots of success. So, maybe it will be the same thing for me,” says Gonzalez about his hopes for the future. We feel that if he keeps producing albums and songs as moving and deep as We Own the Sky, how could he not become a sensation in his hometown? There’s no doubt that we’re rooting for you Anthony, humming along to your beautiful, nostalgic, inspirational song all day, every day. Because We Own the Sky.

An Interview with Spencer Jones.

Spencer Jones: volleyball player, routine-oriented, and a man who isn’t afraid to blow-dry his hair. We had the chance to sit down with this interesting character and he took the opportunity to tell us his life story, among other things…

Rachel: Spencer Jones, let’s start off with something simple like an explanation of your routine in the morning, well, that is, if you have a routine?

Spencer: Well, I wake up at 7 I clock in the morning, I go and do 200 push-ups, and then I shower. Around 7:30 I blow dry my hair and shave—

Rachel: Wait, do you actually blow dry your hair?

Spencer: I do, I like to have lusciously…dry hair. After my blow dry I eat my breakfast. This morning it consisted of mini-wheats with little almonds on top, a banana, and kiwi-strawberry juice.

Rachel: I know you’re notorious for your letting your mother make your lunch for you, so do you make your breakfast yourself?

Spencer: I did make my breakfast myself…I found out mini-wheats are pretty easy to make actually. The hardest part is when the milk runs out and you have to change the bag.

Rachel: So after breakfast what happens?

Spencer: The bus arrives at approximately 8:08—

Rachel: Of course, approximately 8:08.

Spencer: Do I sense sarcasm?

Rachel: …So now let’s go a little bit further back than just this morning, where are you from?

Spencer: I really can’t say I remember the hospital name, but I do remember that I was born in Chatham on October 9, 1992.

Rachel: Were you a big baby or a small baby?

Spencer: I was a big baby…11 pounds 7 ounces—actually I was a huge baby. I was supposed to be born cesarean section, but the doctors decided not to, they actually almost ended up having to break my shoulders.

Rachel: What?! How could they break a baby’s shoulders?!

Spencer: How else are you going to get ‘em out? Cause if you leave me there, then I could’ve died or caused my mom to hemorrhage. But luckily they got me out.

Rachel: So how did they end up pulling you out!?

Spencer: I’m not sure to be honest…but I do have a slight tip to my shoulders now. One is slightly higher than the other.

Rachel: We’ll call that your special characteristic. Some people are double jointed, Spencer Jones’ shoulders are uneven, hey, it’s all the same.

Spencer: Exactly!

Rachel: So you went to school in Chatham for most of your childhood, but obviously you moved to Huron County at some point in your life, when and why did the move happen?

Spencer: I went to school in Chatham until the summer of grade 7, when I made the fateful move to Huron County. My dad worked at a company in Chatham and business wasn’t exactly booming, the company was going under and he knew it. So he called up Sifto in Goderich and he went through all of these interview processes and eventually he got a job at the evaporator plant.

Rachel: Where did he end up staying?

Spencer: Sifto is in tight with the Benmiller Inn so he was able to get an awesome deal and pretty much stay there for free. He stayed here for about a year and then eventually we decided that he couldn’t keep staying there by himself so we started looking into houses.

Rachel: What house did you end up buying, and where?

Spencer: Well we found Benmiller, bought a property, and built a house there.

Rachel: So let’s fast forward now to first day of grade 8, did you take the chance to recreate yourself as a new person?

Spencer: Hell yeah I took the chance! If you knew me back in Chatham I was more of like a history nerd, that was my thing, but when I came to Colborne I definitely tried to be the cool kid.

Rachel: How did your small town classmates react to your hot-shit, cool guy from the city attitude?

Spencer: I was really openly accepted at Colborne, I pretty much became friends with everyone. We were a small, tight class, which was weird because in Chatham it was so different. I had friends there, but it was a different atmosphere. I actually remember like morphing from the new Spencer to the old Spencer every weekend because I would go back to Chatham. It was a weird time, but really, who isn’t weird at that point in their lives?

Rachel: And this brings us to now, who is the Spencer today?

Spencer: To be completely honest, and a little cheesy, I am exactly who I want to be today. I don’t want to say I don’t care because that sounds passive, but I’m a unique individual. I do what I do.

Rachel: And onto future Spencer, you’re a smart kid so I’m assuming you’re looking into university, is there anything about the future that scares you?

Spencer: Yeah, I’m looking into studying for something along the lines of a specialized doctor.

Rachel: And you’re co-oping to prepare for this right?

Spencer: I am, at the hospital in town. Right now I’m on the most boring floor of the hospital. It’s really depressing because it’s like patients with dementia or who are too old to live by themselves but there is no space in the nursing homes for them. It’s really weird to think about because they’re just staying at the hospital and essentially they’re waiting for someone to die at the home so that they can move in.

Rachel: Is there anything you’re afraid you won’t be able to handle at co-op or in your future job?

Spencer: I’m scared of dying and death, and also of being forced to put up an emotional barrier between the patient and I. That’s why I don’t think I’m as set on radiology as I was before because it’s just too cut and dry for me. But at the same time I don’t want to have to work on a bunch of cases at once because it kind of takes the purpose away from being a doctor, which is to help people feel better.

Rachel: And let’s finish up with a nice little anecdote, would you mind telling me your weirdest experience at co-op?

Spencer: The weirdest experience actually happened after co-op…

Rachel: Okay, tell me your weirdest experience after co-op?

Spencer: Well I came into the emergency room and one of the doors was shut. Of course I asked why the doors were shut and they told me that a 99 year old woman had died. Everything was a little bit awkward because someone had died in the emergency room so what was I supposed to say or do?

Rachel: Well, that’s a good question, what did you do?

Spencer: I knew that I wanted to go in and see this and be a part of it because it would prepare me for my potential future. I wasn’t going to be asked but I tried my best to put myself in a position where the Head Nurse ended up asking me to go in. To be honest I was really nervous to go in there.

Rachel: So you go through the double doors into the room and…?

Spencer: It’s not like you see in the movies. It was just weird to see her there, and we had to count her possessions. And then, we put her in a body bag, which is just a weird experience in its own. The weirdest thing that happened by far was when they said, “Goodnight” to her.

Rachel: That’s really creepy.

Spencer: It gets weirder because I went to volleyball practice that night and Zach mentioned that his grandma had died in the emergency room earlier that day. It kind of made me realize the fact that living in a small town like Goderich usually means there’s a small degree of separation from you or anyone, even someone who just died in the ER.

Photo Filters...

Lady Gaga...as herself.

Lady Gaga...with fuzzy edges.

Lady Gaga...as a mosaic.

Lady Gaga....as an oil painting.

Lady Gaga...making a bit of noise!

Paths Assignment`

I played around with paths at the top with the word creativity, and then also created 4 other paths along which i pasted my name! :)

Movie Poster!

Sick with the plague...

Sooo much disease, not enough time. This entire week has been a blur of sore throats, sore necks, and sleeping whenever possible. I'm finally able to use my computer and am working on my poster right now but seem to have hit a creative block that I can't seem to get over...stay tuned:(

Cool New Look.

So I may or may not have changed my blog a bit...

I played with the layers masks on the text, pictures and background. I also used some of the filters to attempt to create text that looks like it's disappearing. I edited the background and my color balances to add some colour, i also had to crop myself out from the background of the entire picture that I had chosen. All in all, a lot of work...but it was pretty successful. The only thing that sucks is it's pretty pixelly because i didn't design it to the right dimensions at first. But hey, lesson learned, and who's complaining anyway?

Blonde Bombshell

Where did her blonde locks go...who knows

Our Class...and a Movie Poster

Here is my pimped out gimp creation for our assignment to create an "our class" logo. I also played around with layer masks a bit in this assignment because I thought it would add to it. I'll be posting my layer mask banner assignment tomorrow, got a sweet vision that I've just got to get all finished up!
PS, here's an interesting movie poster that I'm a huge fan of...I stumbled across a site full of movie and tv show posters that were very minimalist and simple. I found them all really fascinating. Take a looksie at one of my favourites below!

Some News...and a short Cell Phone Bible Story

Just a little heads up, look forward to my next post tonight, it's going to be my GIMP assignments/experiments. You might be impressed.

In other news...last night I dropped my phone in the toilet. My very expensive phone pretty much JUMPED out of my pocket and DOVE into the water. And we're talking ker-plunk, sploosh, splash, soaking wet water everywhere folks. Not a pretty sight...So, after reaching into the toilet and collecting my phone (don't worry...it was clean water) I watched as the colours of my background faded from normal blue to acid green to angry orange to fiery, demonic red. It appeared as if my phone did not enjoy taking a little bath. Who woulda thought? When I finally tore my eyes away from the demonic red colour of my phone's screen that seemed to be screaming "Yes I am going to explode in your hand any second now" I flipped my phone over and took the battery out. Needless to say there was a combination of, "well, I love my life" and "well, my parents are probably going to be SO impressed!" going through my head. Oh well...they raised me, their fault. Long story short, I went home, threw my phone in a bowl of rice and prayed to the cell phone gods, angels, and fairies, that when I woke up in the morning it would all be okay.
Sunday morning...I wake up. I take my phone out of the rice and shake it profusely to get all of the little grains out of the expensive mechanical thingers inside my phone. I put my battery in, and slide the back of my phone shut. My fingers press and hold down the red button that should power up my phone. One second slips by, then two, then five, then eight...and still nothing. I begin to lose hope, my faith in the cellphone gods has been lost, and it's starting to look like I stuck my hand in a toilet bowl for no reason...
But wait, the screen began to turn on...and it looked normal. After a few minutes of use and experimentation, my phone appeared to work as if nothing had ever happened. Cell phone gods, fairies, and angels, you have answered my prayers. In the end, I have learned my lesson, and this should pretty much become a bible story for children studying faith in the cell phone gods. Jusss sayin' don't drop your phone in the toilet kids.
Amen ,
-rach

So...How's The Weather?

Hey...This is rachel, rachel cannon. Know my name? Great. Don't know my name? Well now you do.
So I think the point of this post is to introduce you to who I am, which means... so far, so good! The only unfortunate part is this is as far as I can get before I run out of things to say. It's like that awkward thing where you're making small talk and then there's an eerie silence and someone's forced to ask "sooo...how's the weather?". Awkward. This whole situation actually reminds me of a great video. FYI...if I could choose one actress to play myself in a movie it would be Kat Dennings (the girl in the video below).

Well let's make it easy. My name is Rachel Cannon, I live in Goderich and have all my life. I love softball and have played it every summer for ten years now...no seriously...I love it. I don't like the noise that comes from alarm clocks and hate being tired. If I was forced to eat just one thing for the rest of my life, I would probably choose soup. Do you know how many different kinds of soup there are? Infinite amounts. I bet you didn't know I still have the same teddy bear that I had when I was two, well now you do! I also am betting that you didn't know my room is a mess and covered in an unreal amount of clothes (I have a lot of clothes...and by a lot...i mean a lot). You know, blogs are so weird, I never feel like I have enough to say that someone would actually want to read.
Sidenote: One of the funniest blogs that I've ever read is Hyperbole and a Half, consider and laugh at this post on the word "alot". No...not "a lot" ..."alot". I wish I had as much to say and could say it as hilariously as this blogger can. But I don't...soooo...maybe I should apologize or something.
Anywho, just thought I'd give you a little introduction. If you really want, you can keep reading my blog...if you don't then thanks for wasting your time! And if you're Mr. Alexander... you have to read my blog ! haaaa ..
Peace and love for now,
-rach

Kid's Got Some Skill...

I mean I guess he's got a little bit of skill or whatever to be able to play like this...right? No big deal or anything, he's just pretty amazing.

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