The Best of Phil Spector

Amazingly enough, the jury is still out in the murder trial of Phil Spector. California juries are obvously incapable of convicting celebrities, no matter how guilty they may be. Despite the man's obvious mental instability and violent tendencies, he was one genius of a record producer. So, in honour of what I hope will be his impending guilty verdict, I bring to you my top ten Phil Spector produced songs:

1) Unchained Melody - The Righteous Brothers

2) The Long and Winding Road - The Beatles

3) Instant Karma - John Lennon

4) To Know Him is to Love Him - The Teddy Bears

5) River Deep - Mountain High - Ike and Tina Turner

6) My Sweet Lord - George Harrison

7) Be My Baby - The Ronettes

8) Christmas (Baby, please come home) - Darlene Love

9) True Love Leaves No Traces - Leonard Cohen

10) Rock N' Roll High School - The Ramones

11) He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss) - The Crystals

12) Let it Be - The Beatles

13) Every Breath I Take - Gene Pitney

14) Across te Universe - The Beatles

15) Black Pearl - Sonny Charles and the Checkmates

16) I Love How You Love Me," the Paris Sisters

17) Not Too Young to Get Married," Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans

18) Walking in the Rain - The Ronettes

19) Imagine - John Lennon

20) You've Lost That Loving Feeling - The Righteous Brothers

Unchained Melody

Shows you can take away

French Director Vincent Moon has a knack for creating what he calls "the spontaneous music video" where he captures some of rock's most interesting artists performing in unexpected locales. He calls these videos "take away concerts." All of his videos can be found on YouTube or at his site, Blogotheque. Here are three of my favourites:

The Arcade Fire perform "Neon Bible" in a cramped elevator:



Grizzly Bear belt out an accapella version of "Knife" on the streets of Paris:



Sufjan Stevens performs "The Lakes of Canada" on a rooftop in Cincinnati:

The Prodigal Buddha has Returned!

Greetings Kids,


I hope everyone had a great summer. My summer was very interesting and one of immense personal change. I have moved out of my hometown of Toronto to beautiful Montreal in order to start my graduate studies in English. I've never been more excited/terrified. Anyway, I know no one particularly wants to hear about my personal life but I thought y'all would enjoy this little tidbit from my first week in Montreal.


I thought you'd enjoy this tidbit from my life. So, I was walking home late at night after having a few drinks with an old friend from high school whom I hadn't seen in years. Now, my neighbourhood is very nice but it has a certain criminal element that I love because it livens things up a little and gives me oodles of street cred that otherwise I would go without. My neighbourhood is called Notre Dame de Grace aka N.D.G. aka No Damn Good.

Anyway, like I was saying, I was walking home and I decided to cut through a dark alley for some reason. So, I'm strutting around like I own the town feeling pretty proud that I'm assimilating so well to my new surroundings. Then, as I round the corner onto my street I walk headlong into the handsome gentleman pictued below:


Yes, that is a grown man with a skull tattooed on his face. Needless to say, I promptly crapped my pants. The pants crapping was then followed by a fear induced vomit. After I scampered home like a little girl, I was on the internet and came across a list of the "10 of the Most Insanely-Modified Human Beings in the World." This skull faced gentleman, who lives in Montreal, was listed as #4. Weird, eh? I still have nightmares.
Anyway, I hope enjoyed that tale of my cowardice. Come back for some more posts.