Alli's Articles
INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS, CULTURE PIECES, MUSICAL RAMBLINGS.
January 10th was a wild day. I was leaving the country the next morning, so I had to scramble to find out all the work that I was missing. I came home being absolutely exhausted. I flopped down in my bed, looked at the clock, and to my tired eyes' delight, saw that it was only 11:30pm. I had so much time to rest! Every bone in my body was begging me to get some shuteye before my 10am flight. What did I decide to do? Watch a 2 hour long sad movie that physically and emotionally wrecked me.
Call Me By Your Name, as you have (maybe) heard by now, is a Oscar nominated movie about a young guy living it up in Italy in the '80s. Suddenly, an attractive not-much-older guy moves in with him and his fam and they start to get closer. Long story short, feelings get caught, and all this exploration of first love gets done. I don't really want to spoil much, so just watch it and see all the tragic-ness for yourself. There are many elements of CMBYN that caused me to sob that night, but since this is a music blog, let's focus on that aspect first. Sufjan Stevens, guys. Just....Sufjan Stevens. His voice, his style, that HARP...it was all so perfect for the setting of this entire movie. Listen to this song. If you haven't seen the movie yet, try your best to picture yourself during an Italian summer with a person you just met that you're starting to fall for. If you want to get more of a taste of the music, just look at the entire soundtrack. It's a mix of beautiful piano melodies, sad Sufjan stuff, and some classic 80s hits. I really liked the 80s hits, because it shows that the curators of the soundtrack really wanted to be in tune with the time, and made sure to select good songs from the era that would represent Elio and Oliver's 'ship. The other element that made me enjoy this movie so much was the fact that it was set in a BEAUTIFUL QUIET LITTLE TOWN IN ITALY. The scenery was so beautiful, and the colors really popped out at you. Everything scene was so.....calm. Even if there was some drama happening, I never felt tense or on edge. I have the nature and the open windows and the sunlight to thank for that. An amazing, powerful love story like this one doesn't need to be overpowered by a bustling town. Somewhere in the middle of Italy was a perfect balance. I also loved their house. It was so old but in the best way. I'm moving there. Now you guys who haven't seen this movie are probably like, "Everything about this movie seems so nice so far...why are you saying it wrecked you?" If you don't ever plan on watching the whole thing, just watch the final scene. Search it on YouTube. I won't put it here because of spoilers, but once you see what happens to them, you'll understand why I have such a love-hate relationship with this movie. I love everything about it, except how the ending made me FEEL FOREVER. I hope you guys enjoyed this review! The Oscars are coming up, so I probably won't shut up about this movie for a while. I've been recommending it to anyone who says they want a movie about romance. Even if you don't want a movie about romance, just watch it. It will change you and higher your movie standards. Trust me.
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We are only 17 days in, but 2018 has already been an extremely wild ride. Heck, I was in a different COUNTRY 2 days ago! And I've never done that before! And it was amazing! For those who haven't seen my snaps, or tweets, or 'grams, I was in Québec City, Canada from the 11th up until Monday night. I was excited about everything: the old buildings, everyone speaking a different language, and the dog sledding!!! One thing I was curious about was the music. Would I Shazam some French songs? Will I watch a French band preform? Will I find some cool music venue info that I can relay back to the blog? The answer I got to all of these questions was unanimous and astonishing "YES!" There was one venue I saw that was next to an ice rink in a little part of town called D'youville. I remember it because I thought saying it over and over again was wildly entertaining. Outside of the venue they played cool alternative-sounding French music. I tried to Shazam one when we were walking by to go to the grocery store, but sadly I lost it. When we were coming back, I struck gold! I heard a really slow, jazz inspired jam that is called Va y Avoir du Sport by Silmarils. I haven't gotten the chance to listen to more of their songs, but I read that they were compared to early Red Hot Chili Peppers, so that's always a good reference to have on your bio. Check the song out, and imagine you're me, sitting outside an ice skating rink in 10 degrees Fahrenheit weather, taking the hand warmers out of your gloves and pulling out the Shazam app. The second magical music discovery I made on this trip was when we took a bus to the famous Hotel de Glace, also known as the Ice Hotel. I found this place absolutely fascinating, from all of the individual rooms with murals carved into them, to the bar with music playing and apple juice served in blocks of ice. If you are ever in the QC area, you MUST go to the Ice Hotel. You'll have the urge to stay overnight, even though it was -10 degrees Fahrenheit when we went. Going back to the bar of the hotel, they played an interesting variety of music. In the middle of Despacito, a weird cover of The Kids Don't Stand a Chance by Vampire Weekend, and Tunak Tunak Tun, I heard a song that sounded like if Two Door Cinema Club and The Night Café had a baby which has an extremely strong Québécois accent. I turned to my beloved app as always to find out what song it was. I was a little confused when it came up. The cover was a picture of an elderly woman, and I eventually translated the title to "I Love Your Grandmother." I wondered in confusion what this song was really about until I got home on Monday and decided I NEEDED to look it up. And....you know what, actually? Just watch this video. It will do all the explaining. Just imagine, you go to the nursing home with your buddy and by the end of the visit you find out he's your granddad. Here, these are some translated lyrics: "I love, I love your grandmother I want to make your father full of half brothers I will say ... I ' love, I love your grandmother I want to taste the benefits of her knowledge " Truly a very....interesting song. This song is wild, but it's not the only crazy music video Les Trois Accords have done. Basically every video I watched so far has them getting arrested or kissing the grandma. Here's one of my favorites. So, there. Québécois Indie bands exist. If you knew that, and needed one to listen to, you're welcome. This song gives me strong Kooks vibes, and that makes me happy. These guys are really good. If only I spoke fluent French and could understand what their songs meant without doing vigorous translation research.
The French Band story isn't as exciting as I'm sure you all are expecting it to be. I feel like you guys would expect me to run into a cool alternative group of young French-Canadian guys and interview them and stuff! I don't get that lucky. I watched a middle-aged guy rap in French over a band of other middle aged guys at a crappy pub. But hey, I got to see something out of the local music scene. This trip was definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity that I'm so glad I got to go on. Hopefully, I can one day make it a twice, maybe three time opportunity. There is so much culture in Québec that I haven't gotten to explore in the 5 short days I was there, and I plan on finding as much as I can out. My next idea is to head out to Montreal to see if I could find more culture there. Until after midterms, I'm Alli, newly Canadian and Les Trois Accords lover. See ya soon! |