Music Videos

Mostly, I hate music videos. I think they are hokey and uncomfortable, also usually uncreative and cliche. However, I've been watching things on YouTube lately, and here are some music videos I actually enjoy:

Silversun Pickups, "Well Thought Out Twinkles"



Joy Division, "She's Lost Control"

Silence on Blogger, but not in my flat

I know, I've not been posting lately. Basically, that's because I've been super busy declining Latin nouns and adjectives and conjugating Latin verbs. Oh, and also reading great books and downloading amazing music! My computer is up and running properly again (after crashing three times during the spring semester), which means that I am again able to download and listen to music every day! Woo-hoo. :) I went to PA last weekend for my sister's birthday party, and while there I pumped my sister's boyfriend for the names of his new favourite indie acts. Here's what's currently on my playlist:

1. Silversun Pickups -- an Indie band from LA; they're a mixture of EMO and punk, with really creative lyrics. Check them out on MySpace.

2. Elliott Smith -- I think everyone who reads my blog already loves Eliott. I was late in the game with him; I thought the track they played in The Royal Tennenbaums was excellent, but when I first listened to him I wasn't very impressed. He's grown on me now, though, and I've been playing the album 'XO' constantly.

3. Rufus Wainwright -- I'm listening to 'Want Two' and the new album on MySpace. I really like the song 'Going to a Town' from the new album.

4. Elvis Costello -- Don't even get me started. Costello has been such a huge influence on so many bands, especially Weezer and MxPx, and he writes the best love songs. He's adorably geeky, too.

5. Imogen Heap -- The track 'Hide and Seek' from her new album 'Speak for Yourself' is just incredible. The lyrics are so interesting and introspective, and the music is very creative. Pretty much the only dance music I'd really enjoy.

6. Teddybears -- This Norwegian act ('experimental pop') has a new video called 'Punkrocker' that features Iggy Pop! It's terrific. Check it out on YouTube.

7. The Magnetic Fields -- I love the lead singer's voice; it's very sultry and passionate. The track 'I Can't Love You Anymore' (on MySpace) is brilliant.

8. Interpol -- Their recent album 'Antics' is full of passionate, introspective lyrics and interesting sounds, and they have a new one coming up! Woo-hoo!

I've also been reading for fun -- an absolute must for a happy Sammee. So far, I've finished The Conservative Soul by Andrew Sullivan and Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. The former was incredibly thought-provoking and revealing to me; the latter was incredibly funny and made me feel better about being a pendant for grammatical faithfulness. I am glad that there is someone else alive who loves the semicolon enough to talk about what a lovely punctuation mark it is. Now, I'm back to the Robber Bride; my friend informed me that it's worth the wait.

Eye Opener

Have you ever had one of those 'ah-ha' moments when everything makes sense and the rose-coloured glasses fall off? I had one of those moments today when reading Andrew Sullivan's The Conservative Soul: How We Lost it, How to Get it Back. Here's the passage:

"The founder of the country, George Washington, was particularly concerned about the impact on civil life of religious and doctrinal disputes. He wrote in a letter: 'Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause. I had hoped that liberal and enlightened thought would have reconciled the Christians so that their religious fights would not endanger the peace of Society.' Tell that to the architects of Republican hegemony, Karl Rove and Tom Delay."

In this chapter, Sullivan also discusses the deistic foundations of America, and the Founding Father's emphasis on the separation of church and state:

"In 1797 the U.S. Senate unanimously approved the Treaty of Tripoli, an attempt to deal with Muslim privacy and terrorism in the Mediterranean. One of its clauses reads: 'As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Musulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shalt ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.' It is hard to think of a leading contemporary Republican insisting that American government 'is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.' In the early republic not a single senator dissented."

Wow. I'm speechless. Of course, no one has ever before shared this information with me. Incredible the false consciousness (a la Adorno) I have been under until recently.