LOVE - These Songs 

With Père Noël about to hop down chimneys, heres a couple songs to get in the mood

Julian Casablancas - I Wish It Was Christmas Today

Download

Slow Club - Christmas TV

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Zooey Deschanel and Leon Redbone - Baby It's Cold Outside

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Sufjan Stevens - O Holy Night

Download

Smashing Pumpkins - Christmastime

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Death Cab For Cutie - Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)

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Coldplay - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

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and possibly the best Christmas song of all time

Bruce Springsteen - Merry Christmas Baby

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HATE - The Cost of Lift Tickets in Ontario

An all day ticket at Blue Mountain costs at least $70. An All day lift ticket at Whistler costs $91. Whistler has endless amounts of fresh powder, backcountry, awesomeness. Blue Mountain has machine groomed granular, at best. (shakes fist angrily)

Love - The Farewell Circuit 

The Farewell Circuit is composed of four guys from Minneapolis, another band that just randomly sent me an email. The really sincere message contained references to Death Cab For Cutie, Sigur Ros, and Radiohead. Immediately red flags started to go up. These are not only some of my personally favourite bands, I consider them among some of the most talented bands in music today. They were gracious enough to allow me access to the whole album, and once again, my expectations were not only met, but exceeded. I'm not entirely sure how to explain it, but its some of the first music I have listened to in a while that didn't really feel like the artist was really trying hard, in a good way. I also got a real wintery vibe from the entire album, its not necessarily dark, but I picture it being played in a warm chalet as opposed to any point in the summer. In terms of the bands they compared themselves so, it's not like I am going to say they've transcended them, but the have definitely been heavily influenced by their sounds, and used to them in an intelligent way in the record. I noticed on their myspace they are friends with The Rural Alberta Advantage, another great band (more for the summer) that I otherwise wouldn't have made a connection between the two, but their sounds definitely work well together. Here are a couple of my current favourites from the album so far. (You definitely hear the Radiohead influence in "Salt")

The Farewell Circuit - The Inexorable March of Time

The Farewell Circuit - Salt

The Farewell Circuit - Good Winter

Hate - Cold FX

Roomates were sick this week, and I started to feel under the weather. With one exam left and not wanting to be sick studying, I bought some Cold FX. 2 days and like 10 pills later (your supposed to take 6 the first day) I feel like death. Goodbye $13, hello sick studying. You suck Cold FX, you suck so bad.

LOVE - These Pictures 

HATE - Getting Haircuts 

I genuinely dislike getting haircuts. The only reason why my hair ever gets long isn't because I want to grow it long, no, it is because I am either too lazy or just don't want to be bothered with getting it cut. I have never had the kind of barber relationship that most people have, one guy that you always go to, you know a certain amount about each other to carry on casual conversation. I'm freelance, just go to whomever is willing to give me a decent cut. This means I'm often stuck awkwardly sitting, the poor guy trying to start up something, but I'll have none of it, I wanna get in and out. Then there is always the next couple days of "whoooa did you get a haircut?" and the awkward period between when it is clearly just cut to when it grows slightly and looks decent. I do however sympathize with barbers in general. I always consider when I am getting my hair cut how many heads of hair the poor guy has to cut to buy a car or a house, and there are some sketchy heads out there. In conclusion, I need a haircut.

LOVE - Voxtrot 

These guys are another old favourite. They're from Austin Texas and have been making music since 2003. They have always sort of been the band that will perpetually be a welcome surprise on shuffle. The music just sounds super original to me, with songs ranging from stripped down ballads to full on party-rock. They are also one of the few bands that when I ever mention their name, no one has ever heard of em. There are at least 10 songs that I would confidently post here, but most of my favourites are .mp4 which wont stream. So find the songs Soft and Warm, Brother in Conflict, and the Start of Something. You will not be disappointed. So, here ya go, some old stuff, one of their new-ish singles, and a link to their site.

Voxtrot - Long Haul

Download

Voxtrot - The Warmest Part of Winter

Download

Voxtrot - Trepanation Party

Download

HATE - Car Bras

Part two of my on-going series involving things located ahead of the steering wheel that I hate on cars, is, the Car Bra. For years I have not been able to imagine the person that decides spending hard earned money on this device is a good idea. As I understand it, the Car Bra is designed to protect the front of your car from damage due to flying debris. Now, I am sure there is a certain amount of damage done to the ordinary car from said debris, this point I will not argue. But the reality is, the Bra itself looks way, way worse than any damage that could possibly be done by pebbles. If this was such a huge concern, wouldn't every Ferrari and Lamborghini on the road have one? I would wager 87% of Car Bra owners own Pontiac Sunfires, 90% of which are red. Even if the thing works like it should, keeps the front of the car looking brand new, when it comes time to sell the car years later, you are left with an outline of perfect paint completely miss-matched with the rest of the weathered car. Just makes my brain hurt, so, badly.

Love - These Songs 

Kid Cudi - Pursuit of Happiness (Steve Aoki Dance Remix)

Download

Discovery - I Want You Back (Jackson 5 Cover)

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Roxy Music - In Every Dream Home A Heartache

Download

Suburban Kids With Biblical Names - Funeral Face

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Brand New - Millstone (Alternate Version)

Download

Hate - Nuts. 

Love - These Pictures 

Sidenote - I forgot about this song yesterday. I consider it way more gangster than most of today's rap.

Mel Torme - I'm Comin' Home

Download

Hate - People Who Shuffle Their Feet 

This is one that has bothered me for a while. It's actually been passed down from my mom, who has always told me to "pick up my feet" if I'm walking lazily. Whether it's in the mall, on the street, on campus, there are always people just shuffling along. Now, I understand older people who are taking their time, etc. thats totally fine, they are usually courteous, stay to one side, understand that there are other people in the universe other than them. This is primarily directed to girls afflicted with "Broken Ankle Uggs Syndrome". Now, let me be clear, I am not one of these people thats all "every Western girls the same, Uggs aren't functional. blah blah blah" They look good on girls, I don't care. It's these girls that, for some reason, walk in their Uggs with their feet halfway in the boot. Just shuffling along like they've been shot in the leg, to the point where you can see they have worn down the soles. I just can't understand it, is it that hard to walk? Figure it out.

Love - These Songs 

Cold War Kids - Audience of One

Download

Blind Pilot - 3 Rounds and a Sound

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Surfer Blood - Swim (To Reach The End)

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The Horrors - Who Can Say

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Architecture in Helsinki - Frenchy I'm Faking

Download

Hate - Christmas Too Early 

I'm a little late on this one, forgot about it. But there were christmas commercials November 1st this year. That is just ridiculous. December 1st, after American Thanksgiving is an acceptable start to holiday advertising. Today is December 1st and I feel like I'm already tired about hearing about Christmas. Just super lame.

Love - This American Life 

This American Life is a weekly hour-long radio show that's been broadcast by Chicago Public Radio since 1995. Hosted by Ira Glass, every show focuses on a theme, and tells stories regarding variations on the theme. Oddly enough, the first time I found out about the program, it was through the short television season they produced through Showtime. The show too the same format, variations of the same theme, but shot documentary style. The show was pretty amazing, something completely new and different from what was/is on TV, it actually felt real, compared to all the popular "reality" programs. Once the season was over, it was nearly impossible to find episode online or anywhere else, but I did find out about the weekly podcast, and since then have been hooked, they are just as good, if not better than the show. I will be the first to say it's not for everyone. I can definitely see people saying its boring, or they don't get it, but there's definitely an audience, it's the number one audio podcast on iTunes. Examples of themes have been "books that have changed your life", "frenemies", "middle of the night" and "mindgames". The thing is, you might think "Books that changed your life" would just be people talking about books they read that they really liked, but the stories just have to passively relate. One of the stories was about a man who was a construction worker, who became obsessed with the story of Lewis and Clark. He began to collect original editions of the books, to the point that he lost his marriage and found himself deep in debt, but he had to keep collecting. He eventually completed his collection upon buying the most rare edition of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and sold his entire collection to University for millions of dollars. It's a pretty wild story, and told by the man himself. The podcast itself is also an awesome thing to listen to when your trying to get to sleep, gets the imagination going and you just crash. Heres a link to the website and if you want to subscribe to the podcast its free, just look it up in iTunes. 

Hate - Wipers on Headlights 

I really do not know how prevalent these are in the world. But there was a volvo station wagon in the parking lot the other day, with headlight wipers, and it really made me think. Are they really that necessary? It's not like you need them in the rain, I can't see snow being a huge factor. Maybe if you were out rally racing in the mud, they could possibly be useful. But whose rally racing a volvo wagon, or a mercedes sedan? Gah.