Like, Not Quite Like and Dislike: Emily Haines, (Frederik) Sioen and Broken Social Scene.

Posted on February 24, 2010 by giovanealex

Emiy Haines showing her elegant beauty


Like:
Since I had first listened to her songs, Emily Haines has become one of my music idols. She is not only deeply talented, she is hugely versatile: on her solo project Emily Haines and The Soft Skeleton she has showed her most sensible, quiet, melancholic side, sometimes even reaching a sort of existentialism that gently covers some of her compositions; on her band Metric she has revealead a musical persona that swings sharply between pop and rock tunes which are often fuelled by a more vibrant and wild use of her vocal range.

Emily Haines and The Soft Skeleton – “Winning” (from Knives Don’t Have Your Back)

Emily Haines and The Soft Skeleton – “The Bank” (from What Is Free To a Good Home?)

Metric – “Love Is A Place” (from Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?)

Metric – “Handshakes” (from Live It Out?)

Frederik Sioen is really cute, isn't he?


Not Quite Like:
I have been trying to put Belgian singer Frederik Sioen (mostly known simply as Sioen) on my favourite artists list for some time. I guess I will keep trying to do it but I sense he will never get promoted since most of his songs are considerably boring. Actually, he has composed very beautiful songs on each of his albums but even some of these songs show quirky melodic shifts and obtuse lyric verses. Besides, his voice, which usually sounds beautiful with its husky softness is also quite strange as it seems to belong to a guy much older than he in fact is. Still, he deserves a place on my music library since he has a reasonable amount of beautiful songs and because he has showed a taste for musical versatility – his last album, Calling Up Soweto has proved it fairly well.

Sioen – “Reign” (from Ease Your Mind)

Sioen – “Son Of A Gun” (from Calling Up Soweto)

Broken Social Scene ensemble (are all of them here?)


Dislike:
When I watched “Half Nelson” some years ago I had a slight impression that Broken Social Scene‘s songs (which are featured on the film’s soundtrack) would be of my interest but when I gave the band a try the impression completely vanished. Though I adore Emily Haines so much, in my opinion on her involvement on the Canadian ensemble she wastes most of her musical qualities. Not only the somewhat (supposedly) intended amateur and raw sound of the band diminishes the power of her warm, beautiful and deeply emotive voice but the excessive number of musicians also causes her gifted abilities as a composer and musician to be mostly undermined.

Broken Social Scene – “Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl” (from You Forgot It in People)

Last Note: while Emily Haines said last June she has some inspiration floating for another solo album, Sioen has left the following message on his Twitter and Facebook profiles: “Sioen is having a co-writing session in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (NY)… Exciting!”

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Cinema’s Opening Title Scenes: Lars Von Trier.

Posted on February 5, 2010 by giovanealex

I know. This blog has not been frequently updated but I swear I’m constantly trying to gather some ideas. It was not what I’d promised to the foreign visitors of my main blog and I’m really ashamed about that. The fact is that it is much more easy to do cultural reviews (like I do on seteventos.org) but it is hard to get good ideas to write a more “blogish” post – but I’m trying hard.
That said I can come to the subject of the post itself. I have talked before about ending scenes and closing titles on movies, pointing some similarities between the ending sequences of two different movies. Now it is time to talk about title sequences, which vary from straight and simple compositions to very elaborate and complex ones, sometimes even being designed by specialized artists. That’s why in some cases they not only present the movie itself but give us hints about its creator. But instead of discussing today the most stylish title sequences, like the ones Saul Bass designed to Hitchcock films, I’ve thought it was better to start with the ones made by a director for his own movies: Lars Von Trier. The title sequences of his most celebrated movies follow some kind of pattern: they are usually very short, they bring the film’s title and the director’s name, sometimes showing both things at the same time, and they are directly followed by the movie itself – there is no casting or crew listing on them.
Let’s have a look at the title sequences from “Europa”, “Breaking The Waves”, “The Idiots”, “Dancer in the Dark” and Von Trier’s latest release, “Antichrist”, on a video I have made with them.

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=102764771

First thing to note is that “Europa” is itself an exception among the others: the title is in fact presented in the end of the movie, which makes it more a closing title sequence. Other than that, it reflects the pattern of two other movies, “Breaking The Waves” and “Dancer In The Dark”, showing both the director’s name and the film title at the same time. But since in “Europa” the highlight is given to the movie title and in “Breaking the Waves” and also in “Dancer in the Dark” is the director’s name which receives much more attention, they also show an interesting opposition in style.
Among all of the danish director movie titles, these latter ones are the most aesthetically standardized: both of them show the director’s name in bold long letters serving as a background for the movie title, which is shown in considerably smaller tipography over its background. Since the director’s name is the first thing to be noticed, it is not that difficult to find these title sequences as clear examples of Lars Von Trier’s trademarked egocentrism.
Before going on, we must give a bit more attention to the title sequence of Von Trier’s 2000 film. Unfortunately, I was unable to get the original theatrical title sequence from “Dancer in the Dark”, which was made of Björk’s “Overture” played over a blank screen. When the movie was released on DVD, the movie’s studio suggested to the director to make another one to avoid it to be mistakenly identified by viewer’s as a technical problem, so Von Trier filled it with abstract images, which is exactly the one featured on the video above. I think that both versions give to the audience a sense of the visual problems of Björk’s character, but the original one has much more impact on the audience’s feelings.
The less standardized titles here are from “The Idiots” and “Antichrist”. The first one is simply a shot of the film’s title written with white chalk on a wooden floor and is preceded by a “Dogma 95″ certification – which, as you see on the title sequence itself, is really applied to its full extent. The other brings the director and the title separately, handwritten and completely surrounded by dark and chaotic scribbles, which is undoubtedly signalling the insane and dangerous experience the main characters of the movie face.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a video with the title sequences from “Dogville” and “Manderlay”, which share the same visual style. So, instead of leaving them behind, let’s at least have a look of them on these screen captures


As you see, they are more like a “viewer discretion advised” notice than a title sequence. As to their style, they seem to give a subtle sense of nostalgia, which would not be at all a misunderstanding, since the films’ history are set on the first half of the 20th century.
As Lars Von Trier’s movies, these title sequences can reveal even more than what we see at first sight, nonetheless the meanings which were here underlined are enough to proof enough that they are more than simply an informative signal.

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Sex is a messy room (non-porn version).

Posted on December 25, 2009 by giovanealex

Now and then there comes a celebrity of some kind to declare his or her so-called bisexuality. This is not something new and it’s usually a way to gather some self-promotion (pick Angelina Jolie, who more than once has stated herself as bisexual but we have only seen her with men, with whom she has married twice) but no doubt it is taking the place of the gay outing.
First, let me say I have nothing against keeping these issues as a private subject. I do appreciate a lot people who can live their life the way they want without this stupid urge to jump to a stage or to put themselves in front of a camera on a popular TV show or even on a famous magazine cover and declare their sexuality. Be it a sincere attitude or just a way to gather public attention, it does not matter, it seems so corny – and considering it is basically a variation of the same theme, the “bisexual outing” is also very corny. Despite the fact that she is, artistically speaking, nothing of value, that is the reason why I do not hate Lindsey Lohan. She has not done any of these things to start hanging out with her girlfriend, she simply started living her life with her without bothering to warn anyone of the fact. But the fact that the act of coming out publicly is corny is far from being the problem. The problem is the reason of this bisexual outing becoming so popular among celebrities. Why is it becoming so easy to open your web browser on any given internet news portal and run into someone doing this?
I think this is made for two basic reasons. The first one has more to do with self-promotion, as I have already pointed out: since gay outing has been unnecessarily overused by celebrities who would not need to say that (if in many cases this was too obvious, why bother saying that?), it has become something old-fashioned because it is not causing so much fuzz anymore and so it is being abandoned by whoever wants his or her name floating on the web, newspapers, magazines and TV shows in favour of its “updated” and “fresher” version. The second one would be more related to people who has a more sincere motivation to do the outing: because of the increasingly popularity of the gay stereotype, people who identify themselves as gay have been automatically associated with this, even if they have little to do with it but feeling attracted to people of the same sex, so some of them declare themselves as bisexuals to escape this oversimplified idea since they really don’t fit on it – it is a viable alternative, though I think it is far from being the right choice if you are really gay and not bisexual.
But this way out is getting problematic too: this time it is not getting overused, it is being erroneously used. Guess who are guilty? Yes, the same ones – once again people who would not need to state their sexuality is messing up the room.
Let’s pick someone to illustrate that. Do you people know that singer, Mika? If you are not sure about who he is, you can look for it in Wikipedia (here is the article about him) or you can visit his official site (click here). Though he can use the “stage persona” excuse, people will not have any difficulty to identify his sexuality since he explores the gay stereotype so skilfully that it makes it too obvious. But, surprise! Nevertheless, he himself does not think it is that clear. After avoiding the subject many times, according to Wikipedia, Mika has finally given the statement below to a Dutch magazine (that was pointed out here and also here):

“I’ve never ever labeled myself. But having said that; I’ve never limited my life, I’ve never limited who I sleep with. So, whatever. (…) Call me whatever you want. Call me bisexual, if you need a term for me.”

Ignoring the unbelievable possibility that he really considers himself as bisexual or, even worse, heterosexual (I intend to discuss this particular and disturbing issue on a second post about this subject), this peculiar procedure of verbally denying and putting into doubt what your behaviour makes clear can bring him some benefit (and I can’t figure out what it would be) but leaves none to people who is in fact bisexual – actually, they are the only ones who will carry all the harm here. Statements like Mika’s (whose aim is to dismiss the subject in spite of the fact that he has no problem exploring the gay stereotype all the time) lead people to identify bisexuality as a very inconsequent sexual behaviour, when in fact it’s just the opposite – it is a complex one, usually a non-skettish or frivolous demeanour. This way, as it happened to homosexuality, instead of being firstly understood in its essence and later in its inevitable complexity, bisexuality is being harmfully framed by reckless celebrities (not only but mainly by them) into a dull stereotype that does not reflect what it is supposed to define. As an inevitable consequence, it is being copied by people whose only objective with this is to build a “cool and contemporary” persona – in other words, just another way to present their show-off spectacle. It would be better not saying anything at all or, at least, reflecting a little about what you want to say before effectively doing it, but I am already asking to much of such narcissistic and headless people.

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BlogDay 2009.

Posted on August 31, 2009 by giovanealex

Blog Day 2009
I am not used to join these things – actually I blogged this only once on my main blog, seteventos.org – but I consider this one interesting because it is meant to promote stuff you really like and that most people may not know yet. So, let’s start BlogDay 2009 here on Outsiders.

Feverish Photography Blog – this first one is quite simple: a fabulous showroom of photographers from around the world. Maintained by Los Angeles resident Aaron Feaver – he himself a photographer – the blog brings to readers – or, better saying, viewers – plenty of beautiful, elegant and charming shots in high resolution which are carefully selected by Aaron. It’s surely a feast for the eyes.

E-merl.com – here, comic creator Daniel Merlin Goodbrey publishes everyday – or so – his creations which presents such ordinary things like the use of giraffes as a new unit of currency, polar bears ignoring what they were supposed to say and Hitler as the new rap icon. Yes, it seems a complete nonsense but isn’t this the best thing about the British sense of humor?

Bands & Design – the title pretty much says it all: a blog which centers on the artistic features of (photo)graphic images and videos related to the world of music. The blog is run by Rich Samuels who is also a designer who produces music related content. Take time to pay attention to the charming clean layout of his blog – it fully combines with its content.

videos.antville.org – a community blog in which people post and comment videos related to music. The focus is on indie music but is also accepts content from mainstream music artists. It is so influential that it has its own annual video award – the Antville Music Video Awards – and many video directors and producers themselves post their work to receive feedback from the visitors.

Matt on Not-WordPress – the last one is not exactly runned from some unknown personality though it is actually the unknown blog of him. Matt on Not-Wordpress is the “sideblog” of Matt Mullenweg, the WordPress founder and one of its main developers. Most of the content posted is related to one of his main passions – photographs, taken by Matt himself – but you may find some other things there too.

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DNA’s Sexiest Men Alive and the Top lists routine.

Posted on August 30, 2009 by giovanealex

So I hate “Top-anything” lists.
But why?
I do because it is simply impossible to point out something as “the best” of any kind of subject, theme or media without leaving behind lots of other things as good as the chosen one that you may not even know that exist – not to say that many times these top lists are actually full of things that are far from being good. It is even worst when people insist on doing “the best ever made” lists. If it is difficult to pick the best album, song, movie released or book published at any given year, why would it make any sense something as stupid as trying to point out the best ones ever made? No, it definitely does not. Top lists are nothing more than an old practice on media that has been turned into a blog routine on the internet by lazy people who do it because it is easier to list stuff without giving any explanation. It is an internet plague so popular and disseminated that it it ruins even the easiest task.
Take something that is not exactly the most thought-provoking duty, DNA’s Sexiest Men Alive list, for instance. It is not difficult at all to group the 60 most sexier man alive – though I think it is a silly thing to do precisely because there are lots of more of them out there – but even still the Australian magazine makes it a complete failure.
First, since all the men are listed in no specific order I suppose the magazine’s editors believe all of them are equally appealing. But, for example, how would I assume that this guy

would be comparable to this one?

Second, among the really jaw-dropping actors, models, sportsmen, porn models/actors who were listed, be them famous or not, the magazine has thrown some men on the list merely for the sake of diversity, political commitment and correctiveness. Because, Lord, no, Barack Obama and Dustin Lance Black can’t be listed along with Ryan Reynolds, Chris Evans, Sam Worthington, Jakub Stefano, Chris Rockway and Leo Giamani as the sexiest men alive simply because the former ones aren’t. It is clear the only reason they have made the jump into the list is because both are admired by people as political figures – and, sorry, as much as intelligence can be some kind of a turn on to someone it is far from the one aroused by physical attributes. Third, it is time to update references: after so many years, George Clooney‘s beauty or sexiness can’t be paired to Justin Hartley‘s. Yes, Clooney can still be considered attractive but it is clear he is far from that level of sexiness which Hartley easily sports. Because of these mistakes the list seems too big – among the sixty guys there I would pick only half of them, if much.
That’s why top lists rarely work, no matter what people are listing. So, instead of filling the web with them I think it is better to simply point out something as one of the best in a subject or field. It seems the same but actually it is not: if you say that something is among the best ones of its kind you are leaving room for you to keep listing many others as you keep discovering new ones that you may even find are better and at the same time it also gives your audience the chance to point the ones they also like – this way you are sharing knowledge rather than showing off yours. After all, the beauty of the internet is sharing, isn’t it?

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