radio black transmission

ultragrrrl did the awesome the other day and posted an entire entry full of placebo music videos. i can totally respect, because i think placebo are one of the best - if not the best - "new" band i've gotten into in the last three years. it's not the same mad obsessive love i crashed into with kill hannah - which was a dedicated fangirl passion i hadn't felt since the days of moist, though to be honest i think i'm a bit too old now to fall for a band that hard again - and i'm not sure if i'd have really gotten their music even five years ago, but these days? it's everything. for fuck's sake, my status on facebook at one point back in the wintertime was "Caitlin is thinking her life is turning into a Placebo album." and it was so true, both then and now. really, it's sort of like moist all over again -- music that speaks both to and for me. listening to their stuff is like blowing a hole in my heart with a stick of dynamite. i know i'm totally late to the party when it comes to molko and co., but i'm sucking it all back as much and as often as i can.

in other words, expect to see placebo topping my last.fm (though i still call it audioscrobbler) for a very long time, especially since it scrobbles my lilithpod listens now, too.

for more local news: the toronto international film festival schedule and list of attendees has been announced, sending stargazers and autograph chasers across the city into conniptions. i'm never overly excited about tiff - i do rock stars, not movie stars (figuratively and literally, har har) - but this year i was super-psyched to see that anton corbijn's joy division/ian curtis biopic control is screening! i have no fucking clue how the tiff ticketing system works, but damn if i'm not gonna figure it out. i can't miss that showing. (in an expected bit of promotion, "love will tear us apart" is being re-released as a single -- good for people who only know it as "that song from donnie darko") now, if i could only find a toronto (or vancouver) screening of punk's not dead...

also somewhat appropriately - if you look at curtis' legacy in contemporary bands, that is - chromewaves links to the new editors vid -- for "an end has a start". this makes me all happy inside because that's probably my favourite track off of their new album. sure, those dancers are hella annoying, but i've been a sucker for tom smith since i interviewed him a few months ago. the birmingham boys are in town for the virgin festival in a couple weeks, which i am sadly not attending because 1) no money and 2) i'm spending saturday the 7th with my father, who's coming to toronto to take me to the titanic exhibit at the ontario science centre. we're nerds. (actually, my father is the big titanic enthusiast -- i just get a kick out of seeing a 64-year-old man go fanboy over old ship artifacts)

oh, moz. well, you can't blame the man for sticking to his guns -- or else being really, really stubborn. (that said, i really do like the modest mouse stuff with added marr. i know it doesn't sound exactly like his guitar work in the smiths but whatevs)

dave navarro: porn director? doesn't matter to me what he does -- like so many of the female population, i have a ridiculous weak spot for that man. (like not so many of the female population, though, i carried on a brief amount of e-mail/aol instant messenger correspondence with him in attempt to organize an interview, which went exceedingly well)

as for work on the west coast, i've already been scouting out the music mags and weekly rags i attempt some contributing to, though that still leaves the matter of the almighty day job. much as i want to do the non-corporate route when i'm working out in vancouver - sticking it to "the man", if you will - it looks like i might be staying under my current job's canopy of chain stores after all. see, i'd been planning on quitting so i could instead move to a nice organic grocery store or something (not like van's at a lack of those), but when our district manager - who apparently favours me big time - caught wind that i was leaving for van, he went to my store's manager to offer to get me a transfer. it's hard to explain, but this technically isn't possible because it's a different chain of stores on the west coast, but district manager man knows a store owner in north van and is going to try and hook me up. so, although i was looking forward to escaping the company, it's not exactly like i can say no to that. i mean, hey buddy, if you want to ensure i've got a job the minute i land in vancouver, i'll take it.

by the way, speaking of my workplace (for another month anyway), check out what i bought my coworker friend for her birthday next week. come on now -- "optimash prime"? that there is fucking brilliance that she and i will find more hilarious than anyone. i couldn't not buy it for her when i saw it. (i think it also foreshadows my benevolence in the coming month...i want to make sure i get gifts and cards for both my landlord and my work staff before i leave, and i'm going to thank all my nicest regular customers on my last day of work. i'm just really grateful for the people who've made my last few years in toronto such good times. plus, hey: positive karma!)

[ music | kill hannah, "stunt pilots" ]