The xx

 photo by flickr user Kmeron

I've been craving newness lately. It's in the air: springtime. Possibility. New haircuts, new clothes, new cities (possibly). New music.

I use the word new with some hesitation. Nothing makes me feel more behind the times than the music scene. I'm aware of the fact that the youngest, coolest people will blow their bangs up in the air (apparently my vision of young, cool people was formed in 1988 and will never change) and sigh, "Whatever. I've been into the xx since I saw them at [insert hipster name]'s party in [insert London neighbourhood I've never heard of] ages ago."

I admit it. I'm a little envious of those people. Part of me really wants to be a music nerd, but I've only ever been able to peer in from the outside. I stand at the edge of the circle and rock back and forth on my heels, nodding in fake recognition when the cute girls and boys in glasses and tight pants name check obscure Norwegian pop bands from the 60s that were "so influential." This is why I love the Internet: I can now run home (...I want a smartphone) and look up whatever random band (movie, asian snack food) was being discussed.

I read something (somewhere) recently about bands someone (somewhere) saw at Coachella. They gushed a little bit about the xx, and I was intrigued. Often I'm disappointed when I look up bands other people gush about, but within half a second I was hooked, and I've been listening to nothing else since. (This is the song I started with, and I love this video.) I don't usually love boy-girl back and forth vocals, but I like the way these slightly smoky, subdued voices weave in and out. Minimalist with driving rhythms and good hooks. A little bit moody, but not despairing. Not so much pretty, but gorgeous. Love.

Beautiful things (/I love librarians)

I am a little bit in love with Hillary Webb's art. Hillary is one of the many (many) creative, lovely librarians-to-be I've met during my studies, and I've been wanting to share her work since the first time I saw it. I've always liked embroidery (my past is littered with unfinished cross-stitch kits), but Hillary's work takes it to a different level. I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but she hand dyes her materials with dyes made of nature (nature! things like marigold, dahlia, black walnut, cochineal and umbilicaria, according to her website). The idea of her collecting little bits of world fills me with this fleeting storybook feeling that I can't exactly pin down, but it's rich and deep and a bit spangly. She then fashions her materials into these lovely studies of shape and colour. Love, Me Boutique in Halifax has recently started carrying Hillary's work, and I'm sure there are other avenues by which it could be purchased, if that's your deal. 

I love librarians. And art. And colour. And nature.

Teenage Magazines

I just remembered my dream from last night (boring I know, wait up). One of my favourite things to do when I was a teenager was to sit in bed with a giant stack of magazines I had already read before and go through them. I would do this over and over again, for hours at a time.

Last night, in my dream, this was what I did. I remember dreamthinking, it would be amazing to have a blog all about old teen magazines. Surprisingly, awake me also thinks this would be a great idea. This was probably inspired by Jezebel recent revisiting Sassy's Dopey Fashion Poses, and I am currently very sad that I dumped (hopefully in an eco-friendly way, as I would have learned from this April 1993 issue) my piles and piles and piles of Seventeen (and Sassy, and YM, and... those were the main ones. Mostly Seventeen and Sassy.). Anyway, I would so love to go through them again. That would be a great day.

Maybe rereading blog posts would give me that same feeling. Probably not.

Bright futures

Image via definitive touch

Oh, hello.

[blink blink]

I am thisclose to finished my degree. Yeah, that one that I moved to Halifax for almost two years ago.

What?

So I am almost officially a librarian. I don't have a job lined up, per se, but I think librarian is a title like doctor or artist - now that I am one I will be one forever, no matter what my job title actually is.

Speaking of job titles, I'm looking for a job. And as a part of Job Search 2010 I'm thinking I should develop some kind of official, portfolio-esque web presence. I just want to build a pretty simple space online, a my name here kind of thing, where I can showcase some of my talents (of which there are many, and metadata is just one of them), but I'm lacking in an awareness of how exactly to go about doing that. I understand how to get my own domain name. And I know some html, css, etc. But I don't know how to combine the two to end up with an actual space online. I was looking briefly at just using wordpress.com to build a page, but I quickly got frustrated by the fact that I would have to pay more to make any changes to the css, and I wasn't in love with any of the themes as they stood. Plus I'm actually really picky about design, so I'd like to have a little more control/develop something that's a bit more my own. So, if anyone has tips on how to go about getting started, please send them my way. Thank you. I love you.


Also: the closer I get to being a librarian the more drawn I am to classic nerd glasses. The need is almost physical, at this point.

Um, rad.

This is the best thing I've seen in days (edit: weeks). Also, ever since seeing A Single Man I've been wanting to dress like it's 1962 every day. This didn't help.

She & Him Volume 2

I'm currently listening to the first song on She & Him's new album Volume 2, which can be heard in its entirety at (on?) NPR. It arrives just in time for sunny days (Halifax has been mostly gorgeous for the past little while - I think it might be a real spring!), although She & Him manages to make me feel sunny even when the world outside isn't. I love the power of pop music.

Currently obsessed with robots

photo by flickr user NYCArthur

I'm so glad I went to class yesterday morning instead of "accidentally sleeping through my alarm clock" like I thought I might. My prof made the brilliant choice (coinciding nicely with the day we had to fill in her evaluations) to show us TED videos all morning. The videos were, as per usual, engaging and thought-provoking, but I found one particularly inspiring. It was about robots, and about making them seem more human by having them recognize and reflect emotions (and making them look like Einstein or Philip K. Dick). My mind ran to the future, and I started inventing a world, one where my grandchildren come tell me that they are in love with their robots (and I wear powder blue to their weddings). I think that at heart I'm a sci-fi geek who doesn't really read much sci-fi... that needs to change. But I really want stories with heart. Literary fiction with robots. A Tale of Two Cogs, or some such. (After googling, I'm guessing I should start here.)

In a related turn I came across a retweet from Kris Krug about the Cyborg Reconstruction Fund, which led me to explore Amber Case's work as a Cyborg Anthropologist (um, awesome). I've been going on about how we're all already cyborgs for ages, in my own little I don't really know what I'm talking about but look at hearing aids and contact lenses way, so I'm glad there are people out there who can actually put these thoughts into coherent, academia-approved reflections on the world.

As I realized in class yesterday morning, it's amazing how deeply science fiction films have affected me, and to a certain extent I've already thrown up my hands and am just waiting for the day my robot companion turns on me. Somewhere deeper, though, I find this all so inspiring. I'm excited about the future. Oh wait, it's actually the present. Rad.

Happy return of Nurse Jackie day!

Nurse Jackie is my second favourite show currently on TV (next to Friday Night Lights), and I am so excited for the second season. Which starts today.

Unfortunately I don't have cable, so I will have to wait for some future day to watch, but I wanted to celebrate anyways. And say, if you haven't already watched the first season, DO. And I am a little bit envious of you.

Les petits

For some reason I was craving this scene the other day.

I'll always be a Truffaut girl, me. 

Visiting home with Google Street View

Ahhhh! Surreal feeling.

I've been longing for Vancouver a little bit lately, especially after what I assumed would be Olympics madness turned out pretty awesome. Springtime is slowly starting to peek out at Halifax, although I'm still skeptical about how long it might stick around. I was so sad last year, arriving back home in May, to find that the cherry blossoms had already come and gone even though the trees were barely budding here on the East coast.

So today I went back home, by way of Google Street View.

There is my house. Ack. Following the arrows down the street actually felt surprisingly real.

I also walked ("walked") along the seawall for a little bit. And looked around downtown.

If only technology had evolved enough to let me hear and smell and taste (selectively, of course). I could definitely go for some Japadog right now.