Tag Archive: Alanis

The start of my collection

Categories:

Sat. October 16, 2010

You know, all things considered I didn’t really get into collecting CDs and forming my music tastes as they are today until a few years ago. I mean, growing up I relied more on what I listened to on the Adult Contemporary station which doesn’t exactly aim for the young age bracket. Combined with my parents’ music tastes I became fairly acquainted with a fair amount of oldies. Good question: do you know any songs by Engelbert Humperdink? I do. Heh. Not sure what happened, but the first CD that I ever purchased was Alanis Morissette – Jagged Little Pill. It was getting good press, and I was familiar with Alanis and her work on You Can’t Do That on Television. Ooh, that was odd. I loved the CD, but it just didn’t feel right. What do I mean? Well, buying CDs is something “Jason” wouldn’t do.

I think my CD buying from that point was kept to a minimum. That’s not even a result of the whole Napster thing that happened early in the decade. I just didn’t have much interest in much. Now, sometime in what must have been 2002/2003, I saw the video for Bring Me to Life by Evanescence on TV. I think I was half napping when I was suddenly jolted by what felt like a mythical siren calling out to me. The video hooked me. I remember specifically going out to buy that CD. I played the heck out of that one as well. From that point forward, I was more likely to explore and buy CDs just to see what that music is like. It’s not entirely cost effective, I guess, but it helped me to define my tastes through trial and error. It’s probably why my collection is kind of eclectic.

Almost all of my CDs are ripped and on my computer for easy access. Why don’t I buy more CDs digitally? Frankly I just like having something physical. It’s probably anachronistic, but I just like things better that way. I might buy singles off iTunes for example, but if I like it enough I’m likely to get the full album. I’ll also lean on buying digitally if the stores overprice something. I like physical CDs but I’m no fool, you know?

Tags: ,

Leave comment

Seven tidbits

Categories:

Tue. July 14, 2009

OK, so I can’t claim the award because I’m not going to post this to seven other bloggers. Sorry, no dice. That being said, since it was requested and I don’t seem to mind, I’m going to post seven quick tidbits about myself.

  1. I am a Scorpio and the sign rising over the horizon at my birth was also Scorpio. So my inner and outer self have that characteristic. My moon was in Pisces meaning my emotional nature is Pisces-like (whatever that means). Yes, my vitals are all in water-signs. Would indicate that my emotions play a big role in my life. Very true.
  2. I have helped to organize and emcee orientation week at university. Time leading up to it was probably one of the hardest years of my life. The week itself was completely hellish. Those people that I’ve ushered in have since graduated.
  3. I’ve had three cars: an Oldsmobile Cutless Ciera, a Pontiac Sunfire, and a Toyota Corolla. They all had spoilers. I now can’t picture myself with a spoiler-less car. Such cars kind of look bare, don’t they?
  4. I have notoriously flat feet. I always used that as an excuse as to why I just wasn’t meant to run. Who knew that I’d be running half marathons?
  5. I bake relatively frequently. I often take pictures of what I made. I’m really not that bad of a baker. I’ve gotten good reviews for a lot of stuff that I’ve come up with.
  6. I’ve been to Japan twice. I’m pretty sure I won’t be heading back any time soon. That being said, I find the memorization of Kanji to be fascinating. I’d like to take on Mandarin Chinese as my next challenge.
  7. According to Last.fm, my music tastes tend to be: rock, indie, female vocalists, pop, alternative, Canadian artists. I really like quirky stuff, hence my propensity for Alanis and Björk.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

5 comments

From simple roots through high vision

Categories:

Thu. December 4, 2008

I don’t know if this has been a long time brewing, but all of a sudden I’ve been hit with a sudden urge to change the name of this blog. I think it’s really starting to bug me that the name is just plain average. It didn’t start out that way. The name is what it is only because of it origin–and not because I thought “The Impact” is cool or interesting at all. According to my entries, the last time I changed the name was back in November 2007. At that point I cut the name back to “The Impact.” Prior to that, the name was “Hades Impact.” Where did that name come from? To be honest, the origin is obscure and makes me mildly sheepish when I explain it, so…I won’t (explicitly).

Anyway, I was really struggling to find something appropriate so I started asking around for opinions. In the end, a friend simply went for the obvious: “why not citizen of the planet?” See, I’ve had that as my MSN name since I’ve come back from Japan. It comes from a song by Alanis from her latest Flavors of Entanglement. I think it’s appropriate and sounds cool. So, that’s the name I’m going with for now. We’ll see how long it sticks. :)
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , ,

Leave comment

Bedrock of peace

Categories:

Sat. October 25, 2008

On Thursday evening I found out that The Hour was airing an interview by Strombo with Alanis Morissette. I made a mental note to catch it at 11 pm. It wasn’t just because Alanis was on, but when George gets it right he is really a fantastic interviewer: I knew that the interview had to potential to be awesome.

Thing is, I got caught up with something and all of a sudden it was 11:45 pm. I thought, “oh shit” and hunted for the remote. I switched the TV on hoping that maybe she’d be the last interview for the night. I was in luck, but I only saw about half of the interview.

Why am I mentioning all of this? Well, there was one point in the interview where they were discussing happiness, and that exchange in particular has stuck with me since then because of the depth of it. It’s like the anvil of wisdom came down, beaned me in the head resulting in me having a change in perspective.

George pointed out that Alanis was really happy, then sad for a long time. She offered that she’s everything, and that she stopped aspiring to be happy a long ago because it’s a temporary state. George replied that he agreed and said that happiness isn’t real; peace is real, and you can strive for peace. Alanis agreed. She followed up by saying that all these ‘flavours of humanity” happen on the “bedrock of peace” and knowing that she’s just observing all of it gives her peace.

Wow.

Sure, when it’s mentioned, it’s all so obvious. I have to allow myself to go through whatever human emotions I need to go through. In the end, emotions are fleeting, but when you actually manage to find peace–a lasting inner peace, then you truly have a basis to live your life.

You can watch the interview here.

Tags: ,

2 comments

It’s my carrot

Categories:

Sat. January 12, 2008

Doesn’t it seem like the year is flying by at a good clip? Mid-month/pay day is just a few days from now. It seems like it was only a very short while ago that we were going through the whole new year thing.

I remember that host Jay Ingram on Daily Planet once spoke about a study that seemed to suggest that people experience the passage of time at a faster rate as they age. It’s interesting stuff there. If I think about how I experienced my childhood, it seems like time periods stretched out far beyond what was expected. Back then I didn’t really pay attention to that fact though. I guess at that point in life people can afford to be carefree, right? As soon as expectations and responsibilities start creeping into the picture, that’s when things become tougher. All of a sudden there aren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish what needs to be accomplished. It’s like your eyes are suddenly opened after years of clouded vision.

A big difference that I can identify between life now and life back then is the fact that now the things to strive for happen more frequently. Does that make sense? In elementary, school is just routine, with maybe summer vacation as the main delineator. Sure, there are tests and exams, but they didn’t feel like they were of too much consequence (whether or not that’s true is another matter). Now, there are deadlines galore where my ass is on the line. There’s also pay day which really acts as a time marker of sorts. With these things always looming on the horizon, there’s enough to keep me moving forward. It’s that transparent dangling carrot that Alanis sings about–at least, it’s my carrot.

Tags: , ,

2 comments

Switch to our mobile site