The angst, the agony, the acne, and the acting: this is not the time to discuss the merits and memories of eighties classic, Degrassi Junior High. Just go right now to iTunes and get the very first episode, "Kiss Me Steph", absolutely free while you still can.
It's available on the Canadian iTunes Music store here, but I can't confirm whether or not it's available to international students.
Needless to say, I have watched this a zillion times, can't get the song out of my head, have no idea what I am singing, and am loving every minute of it.
For the diehards, like me, who can't get enough of this little diddy, there are some alternate versions of varying length and content here, as well as a pretty swell extended remix here. Also, if you're wanting to delve deeper into the mysterious origins of this earworm, it's an ad for a local Japanese newsmagazine called Hot Pepper, and it features a J-Pop artist named Kaela Kimura, who really has some sweet dance moves.
In the month since my last post, I've been catching up on culture. Since my wife and I had our second son last year, we've been a little behind in all things entertainment-related, and between the TV season ending and our boys sleeping through the night, are just now attending to the backlog. Case in point: we just saw Dark Knight for the first time, we just finished the second season of Arrested Development, and I'm just now getting into a little band called Arcade Fire.
When I'm up with my son on the couch at night, I can't watch normal TV because I will never go to sleep. Thus I started TiVo-ing "television's longest-running concert music program", Austin City Limits, with the intention of the PBS-powered uninterrupted music lulling me to sleep. When I was a kid the show was a weird mainstay in the TV listings, and almost always had country artists, but now is surprisingly diverse and often quite indie-focused. While the show went through its regular scheduled programs, it worked in putting me to sleep. Then came the Arcade Fire episode.
I've always known of Arcade Fire, heard some of their music, appreciated their impact on the indie music scene, and respected their elevation of Canada as a talented musical community. Now, however, I have just really got into them, in no small part thanks to the powerful Where the Wild Things Are trailer, but mostly because of their intense performance on ACL (as the cool kids seem to call it). If you've never seen them live, try to imagine ten people on stage switching places with a hundred different instruments (including a pipe organ, accordion, hurdy-gurdy, and a car alarm), literally beating the music out of them and the whole time playing their hearts out. PBS has only one of the performances online, in really low quality, and it's one of the tamer ones from the show, but it will give you a small taste.
The following is recommended watching for anyone who, like me, is desperately trying to clutch the bumper of the Arcade Fire bandwagon, which has already had a few years head start, but all the while enjoying the pursuit.
The angst, the agony, the acne, and the acting: this is not the time to discuss the merits and memories of eighties classic, Degrassi Junior High. Just go right now to iTunes and get the very first episode, "Kiss Me Steph", absolutely free while you still can.
