I've Been Meaning to Call You, Then I Do

“Phone rings once

Phone rings twice

Phone rings three times”

Once, years ago, I had a stroke of genius concerning the ringtone on my cell phone. I had just got a phone that came with a program that allowed me to edit a song so that I could have a certain part, instead of just the beginning, play whenever I received a phone call. My brilliant idea was to use the four lines that are written just above this paragraph, which are from the song In View by The Tragically Hip. Yesterday, I heard this song on the radio and immediately began to wonder if I would be able to put the ringtone from years ago on to my new Blackberry. The experiment was a success and I now get to hear Phone rings once…every time my phone rings.

When World Container came out back in 2006 I remember that everyone thought that it sounded so different from what The Tragically Hip usually offers, but mostly I remember loving In View most of all. The song starts out with something that sounds like a synthesizer or a strange setting on a keyboard, which sets the tone. The music is great, it makes me want to dance, and the melody gets stuck in my head very easily. The lyrics are probably my favourite part and at first you think that it is just about a guy who keeps forgetting to call a girl back, but after you listen to it a bit more you hear that it is not just about meaning to call someone but also about the relationship between the caller and the person being called.

The music video for In View is also pretty great. It was filmed in China and follows Gord Downie through the day. It gets really funny when Gord is having lunch and snatches a cell phone off the table next to him and then is chased through the street of Shanghai. I can’t help but smile every time I hear In View, it is such a happy, fun song, and if you want to get me out of a bad mood just turn it on and turn it up! I firmly believe that it is one of those songs that once you hear it you’ll love it, even if you not the biggest Hip fan!

Check out In View by The Tragically Hip off the album World Container.

 

BEDA - Day Thirty

Well, I made it through April and BEDA. I can’t believe that today is the last day and that tomorrow I don’t have to write a blog if I don’t feel like it. It has been an interesting month, but I’m really glad that BEDA is over. It’s really hard to think about things to write a decent blog about every day.

Out of all the blogs that I have written over the month my favourite are book reviews. I love to talk about books, and writing reviews really helps to get the urge out. Whenever I finish a book I always sit back and think about the book as whole, this is how I determine whether or not I actually liked the book. I think about the characters, the plot, the writing and how much I enjoyed reading the book. Writing about these points really helps me to wrap my head around my thoughts on the story, and usually by the end of the review I can tell if I will recommend the book or not. I guess that it could be the English major part of me but I will always like to think about books critically after I read them, even if I don’t go quite in-depth English essay in a review.

I also really love to write about music, and the couple of times that I wrote about music during BEDA have been really fun. I always have music playing, and I can’t stand to have my apartment to quiet. I love to listen to lyrics and to discover how I relate to them. I love the emotion that an artist can convey through instrumentation and how a certain song can make me feel. I also love to spread the music that I love around to other people, and writing about what a song means to you is a really good way to do just that.

I’ve written at least one movie review during the month, but I don’t think that I’ll get into that. I enjoy movies, but I don’t really enjoy writing about them. Movies have always been a way to relax and to veg out, I feel like if I try to write reviews about movies it will ruin movies for me.

I’ve written a bit about my personal life, and things that have happened during the month, and while that is a good out let, I don’t think that I’d want to do it all the time. It can be difficult to write about your personal life because you don’t want to share too much and at the same time you want to keep it interesting, it can be a fine line. I’m sure that I will write about my life from time to time, but I don’t think that it will be the bulk of my blogging.

I guess that what I am saying is that from now on I will be blogging about books, and music. I think that suits me fine. They are two of my favourite things, and it will keep my blog fun for me. So, let me say a big thank-you to those of you who have been reading my blog this month, it has been fun! I can’t believe that I have written every day, well I did miss two days but with almost 17,000 words under my belt I’d say that I won this challenge!

Christmas

I arrived home today a few days early for Christmas. The house is decorated to the nines for the season and immediately put me into the Christmas spirit. I had been trying hard to get into holiday mode, listening to tones of Christmas music and watching all the Christmas related movies that I own, but somehow it just didn’t feel like Christmas yet.

However, as I walked in the door and saw the Christmas tree with gifts piled underneath I felt like it was finally Christmas. I spent the afternoon knitting while my Mom baked cookies and we listened to Christmas music. Later on we are going to watch one of favourite Christmas movies, Christmas Vacation. I’m excited to get to spend the rest of the week preparing for the big day. I have knitting to finish, and lots of wrapping to do. I look forward to visiting family, and the arrival of my brother and sister-in-laws arrival on Friday, Christmas eve eve as my family would say.

The other night as I watched an old Christmas play that my brother and I were in when we were kids I got to thinking about how different Christmas is and how our traditions have changed. When we were kids we use to stay at one of my grandparents house over night on Christmas eve so that we could Christmas morning with them. Now we stay at home, and make the short 10 minute drive to each Grandparent’s house later in the day.

This year marks the first year since my brother and sister-in-law got married that they will be at our house for Christmas. They usually travel to Saskatchewan to visit my sister-in-law’s family, but this year decided to spend the holiday with us. I’m excited to introduce her to some of our traditions. The house will be full of people and I think that it will be an extra special Christmas this year.

Although some of traditions have changed I still really enjoy Christmas. I think that as you grow up it’s natural for traditions to grow along with you, and I’m sure that this year they will change once more. I look forward to see what this Christmas holds for my family, and I hope that your holiday is full of laughter, smiles, warmth and love.