Month: February 2016

Flower Power (The Cult, Hidden City review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Lilies have a few symbolic purposes in culture. From Greek culture in particular, the lily represents birth and motherhood, and also sexuality. In Christian symbolism, it stands for chastity, innocence, and purity. When we get into the esoteric, we can combine the symbols of purity, innocence and fertility together, and then add in vulnerability and freedom of identity.

This week’s album is made by a musical group known for their love of exploration and consideration of the details, I wonder which symbols their lilies represent?

 

 

 

The Cult – Hidden City
released February 12, 2016
******* 7/10

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The Cult are a British rock group which have been reunited twice since forming in 1983. Touted as a post-punk and goth-rock band since their inception, they are famous for the singles She Sells Sanctuary and Rain.

The group gained enough traction to enter into North American markets by the end of the 1980’s and kind of did things at their own pace after that point.

Hidden City is the 10th studio album by The Cult, and the third in a “spiritual trilogy” produced by Bob Rock.

I’ve always been a fan of The Cult since I first discovered them in my teenage years. This was well after they had already broken up once and were on their way to another split, but GTA: Vice City introduced a 90’s kid to popular music from the 1980’s, which I’m thankful for. And so  not content to collect the anthology, I eventually decided to buy Best of Rare Cult; a compilation of selected songs from the Rare Cult box set, which had been released in the fall 2000.

Maybe I’m fortunate for this decision or maybe not, but Hidden City features the energy of that compilation album and some of their more experimental artistic decisions.

For instance, Dark Energy is an incredibly appropriate high energy opener, laced with helpings of both mysticism and spirituality, something to get you excited and remind you why The Cult has a cult following, so-to-speak. How convenient for them!

In Blood features soft beats and dreamlike lyrics, while Birds of Paradise takes this further and really heightens the emotional pull.

Hinterland feels like an anthem for spiritual awareness but upon closer inspection I think it’s also an admission of guilt by Ian Astbury to the problems of ignorance and following routine in an age of connectivity and political intrusion.

But that’s the thing about The Cult. The surface and the core aren’t always the same and they play with this idea throughout the record.

Avalanche of Light has a great chorus and reminds me the major reason why this album exists in the first place. The Cult are exploring the intimate and the unknown – Hidden City is a metaphor for us. The tools may be guitars, drums, and microphones, but the result is still the same, a record by The Cult which features goth-rock like tracks Lilies and Deeply Ordered Chaos, which share in the metaphors of life.

You should check out the audio video for Dark Energy and the music videos for Deeply Ordered Chaos and Hinterland to get a taste for the album, but if you like The Cult, goth-rock or are looking for a place to test the waters of hard rock, Hidden City is a good place to go spelunking.

 

 

 

At albums end, I have to admit I’m not perfectly sold on the perfection of these tracks, but this is a damn good record either way. I’m inclined to theorize The Cult is pulling all of those lily symbols in and out of their songs, but I’ll let you be your own judge, after all, you have your own Hidden City to look after.

See you tomorrow for another shadowy review, this time it’ll be a movie.

Tim!

 

 

On The Road Again (The Back Catalogue)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

It’s important to take day trips every once and a while, dear readers.

The reason for this is twofold. First, if you take a day trip you are taking an adventure, which is always important to do – you clear your head, gather inspiration, and separate yourself from your daily life. Second, a day trip forces you to either spend time with your thoughts or listening to someone else’s, whether those thoughts are recorded or in real life.

Think about it for a moment, because you likely fit into the same mold as most other people , you struggle with down-time or silence, meditation isn’t really something you get excited about. Thus, you’ll want to fill your day trip with music, audiobooks or talking with potential road companions.

Let’s be honest. Music is the most likely candidate here.

Music is a wonderful primer to organizing emotions in a meaningful way. But the challenge with music is that it is often polarizing between individuals, as well as groups. You get on the road and you hope your tastes line up with your companions, friends, and love ones. But sometimes it doesn’t. And if you dig deeper into the music decisions we make, a lot of the time, we get into musical patterns which limit our growth and stunt our emotional intelligence.

Let’s expand on this last statement a bit better.

For instance, you may only listen to specific genres of music, so you buy music which fits a certain genre and while you may buy new music regularly, you will always careful to stick to that particular theme you trust. Or alternatively, maybe you can only handle certain artists within a genre or genres. You buy up all of their records, but you just aren’t interested in exploring a world outside of those musical heroes.

And of course studies on music preference have been conducted which indicate that certain genres suit our personalities and can determine our intelligence levels too.

This chart below showcases the kinds of musical acts people with different intellects typically listen to.

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And this snippet from an article on music and personality associations shows the typing of individuals based on common musical genres certain personalities prefer.

[Blues, classical, folk, jazz] … “reflective and complex”, you probably see yourself as unathletic, liberal and intelligent (and do, in fact, do pretty well on exams and IQ tests). You are also probably very open to trying new experiences.

[Alternative, heavy metal, rock]… “intense and rebellious” listening types: you share most of your characteristics with the jazz/classical brigade, but you’re more likely to see yourself as athletic and slightly less likely to seek to dominate others.

[Country, pop, religious, soundtracks] “Upbeat and conventional”, you’re likely to be agreeable, extraverted and conscientious. You also see yourself as attractive, wealthy and athletic, as well as politically conservative. Good news: this group is the least prone to depression. Bad news: it scores lowest on IQ tests.

[Electronic, hip hop, rap, soul] You’re an “energetic and rhythmic” listener – extraverted, agreeable, attractive and athletic, but you probably don’t share the political conservatism, wealth or lower IQ of your upbeat-and-conventional chums. This group also scores highest for “blirtatiousness” – the tendency to blurt out your thoughts and feelings as soon as they arise.

 

But what if you don’t fit into one of those four musical camps? What if you have a few genre preferences? Heck, what if you have a really have high IQ and you love punk rock or pop music, does that mean the studies are off base?

Well, no, I think the studies are conclusive, they are taking date from a sample group and applying their models to the general population, and let’s face it, the social sciences, and particularly brain science have not received nearly enough attention yet for us to consider ourselves experts on the subject.

What if you listen to a lot of different genres so you can better appreciate where they are coming from, or what if you want to listen to music from all genres because you recognize that there is value in other perspectives, and you don’t know where to start? Well, I’d recommend checking out this link or this link, for starters.

I have this theory, you see, a theory that if I want to contribute to the music scene, I need to listen to a lot different kinds of music – so that I can appreciate all of what’s available, and quite frankly, expand my own horizons and grow.

This is why I’ve created a Back Catalogue; a list of albums I need to experience reaching as far back as the 1950s. Similar to my list for film, the Back Catalogue is broadening my own collection while strengthening my tastes in good music.

By expanding our music tastes, we can grow our intellect and emotional intelligence. That way, when we take day trips with others, we won’t struggle with the radio on the ride down, no, we’ll be comfortable with the music decisions and will be happy to be on the road again.

But what do you think? Am I wrong for suggesting you expose yourself to new music and artists? Please leave some comments and if you like what you read today, don’t hesitate to like the post and subscribe to my blog. That’s all of my theories for today, see you tomorrow friends!

Tim!

 

Hit Me With Your Best Shot (Space:Nunz)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

In a time when loving love can be just as polarizing as hating love, it’s refreshing to see people who recognize that disparity which so often happens between star-crossed cultures, and push through it all the same – while laughing.

What the heck does that have to do with art or the going ons of your life, timotheories? 

Well, a few different things will justify this, dear readers. First and foremost, Valentines Day is just around the corner.

Second, it’s reading week in Edmonton next week, as well as the girlfriends birthday next week. And while those two things don’t have anything major to do with this week specifically, they have led me to commit to a vacation from my day job next week, which is important for this week – You’ll see, because you should now expect lots of cool updates on timotheories soon, which is foreshadowing to a minor tie-in to the first thing. AND FUTURE THINGS. Yes plural.

Last thing (read: one of the FUTURE THINGS), and the most relevant to you fine folks – a very special band has put together their first ever self-curated musical comedy show, which will be debuting this weekend on Saturday night February 13th, at Bohemia located at 10217 97 st NW, Edmonton AB.

Okay, let’s start tying all of these threads together. I’ll start by giving you a bit of background on Valentines Day first.

Valentine’s Day is an interesting holiday which has totally gone off the rails.

I mention this because a lot of the symbolism and traditions stem from a Christian saint named Valentine who was martyred on February 14th. Those symbols and traditions really came into fashion in the Middle Ages via Geoffrey Chaucer and his circle of friends, a time when popular fiction was about noble knights performing services for ladies. As such by the 18th century, England had adjusted it’s social cues such that people expressed love through flowers, sweets, and giving each other handmade greeting cards called Valentines, which of course, are now largely replaced by commercial ones.

What are the symbols?

The heart shape, doves, heart keys, and Cupid.

These are all Anglicized symbols of Valentines day which have been around for centuries now. Interestingly enough, we don’t really know a lot about Valentine the man (or men, if you do a little research) other than stories that indicate he would perform unofficial weddings for soldiers that were forbidden to do so and minister to Christians as a time of great persecution. He was eventually imprisoned and executed in Rome, by Romans, but managed to heal his jailers daughter before he was executed, leaving a letter to her that ended with “your valentine.”

What all of that exposition means, and what I am trying to spell out, is that culture is weird.

I get why some people really dislike the commercial forced obligations of this holiday. But I also understand why others think it’s sweet and like to observe aspects of it, whether they understand the origins or not. As a fan to culture and a bigger fan of satire, this is why I’m excited to check out Cupid Can Suck It on Saturday night at Bohemia!

Space:Nunz will be hosting this event and coincidentally they are also this month’s featured interview. Whoa, the tie-ins are starting to happen. That’s right, I am working behind the scenes to put up an interview I recently had with them. So stay tuned for that!

As mentioned already above, Space:Nunz are a musical comedy duo who are super awesome and make music about possible futures where people are food zombies, how to make friends with spiders, and other things. Laura Stolte and Nathalie Feehan have been jamming together for about a year now and they have been hanging out with Edmonton’s local comedy crowd and also finding time to join in shows with various other musical acts too.

They recognize that Valentine’s Day is an incredibly strange holiday and are big proponents of making clever, weird and fun art. Which is why I think they are the perfect act to check out this weekend, especially when they are hosting a group of 10 other acts that night. I’m sure we’ll see awesome content that is clever and challenges typical comic conventions.

If you want to hear more about the event directly from them, check out this incredibly recent article from VueWeekly! Otherwise, leave some comments and please subscribe to keep up with my media reviews, wisdom posts, local events, and theories on the arts! See you on Sunday friends!

Tim!

Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Work Smarter (Life Hacks)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Another week! Another Wednesday! Another opportunity to share some wisdom with you dear readers! Today’s topic – how YOU can make art and also balance the other areas of your life simultaneously!

Think about it for a minute, what’s the most fascinating subject in this life to dedicate years of your life studying? The answer is none other than yourself, dear reader(s)!

I know it sounds selfish, but is there really a better use of your time then working on yourself? Let’s be serious, we all do need to ask the question – what’s in it for me? If you can’t answer that, you can’t begin to contribute in this world.

Okay, with that aside, I don’t truly have a life-changing list of top 10 ways to improve yourself, make life easier and get your art out there (it’s a lifelong commitment), but I definitely do have a resource to get you started and at the very least start working on basic areas of your life that are universal and can be refined to your specific purpose.

Lists or no, I honestly think the reasons are innumerable for why you should streamline your internal process, so timotheories came up with a curated strategy of things we all need to work on in order get our rear in gear, and remove that fear!

First lets get in the right mindset.

You can’t outsource being CEO of your own life.

– Leo Gura, Actualized.org

No one knows your life purpose better than you, and no one is going to hold you up and guide you directly towards your goals, but if you focus on these habits below, you’ll realize that life becomes just a bit easier, and you have more energy for the things important to you.

I visited a number of sources in order to come up with this list – from Inc., to Readers Digest, WikiHow, Buzzfeed, a blog called BufferSocial, Time, and finally Life Hack.

So what did I determine from the swath of tips?

 

Here are my top 10 skills to invest in, in no particular order.
  1. Time management – Improve your time management skills by looking at your results regularly to see if you are on track or wasting time – Set up your calendar and having dedicated concentration time on specific tasks. Through time management systems, and recognizing that there is a difference between being quick versus in a hurry, you’ll improve here for sure.
  2. Learning to love learning – You need to learn new things in order to keep up with the fast pace of digital tech. That means using keyboard shortcuts, improving your typing speed, and your reading speed, for starters. If you can figure out MACROS on your spreadsheets you’ll be surprised how much automation you can get out of menial tasks.
  3. Communication is key – In a time when texting, email, and social media are the new favourites, try to use the phone more often. It saves on countless back and forth. And speaking of back and forth, be concise in your emails. Respond to calls and emails as quickly as you can, and when you can’t do that, set up a regular time to respond to your contacts.
  4. Multi-task misery – Learn to multi-task the right way, by cutting it out of your life. If you keep a million tabs open on your browser, you’re gonna have a bad time. Please remove distractions while you work and spend time with others. Turn off your phone, close your tablet, and focus on the task at hand.
  5. To-Do list – The ever popular to-do list is perfect for organizing your day into bite-size chunks. Make a daily one to automate certain processes, and really focus on the unique difficult tasks first. As the saying goes, eat that frog. If you want even more reinforcements, create a “to-don’t” list, of things you’ll never do, and stick to it!
  6. Attitude is everything – Expect failure and fight paranoia in life – Failure is common when you are exploring. But not failing is never okay. Keep positive and realize it won’t always be this bad, but it won’t stay easy either. If you ask lots of questions, aren’t afraid to do menial work, and spend 10 minutes a day laughing out loud, when Sunday night appears, you’ll be excited for Monday.
  7. Evaluate life – Make major decisions in the morning and divvy up your day based on your productivity habits. Assess your passions at the end of each year, each month, each week, and before you go to bed. If you can do that you’ll focus and delegate out the unnecessary. Flexibility is important too, but if you get stuck try this – pretend you are away from work and/or home for a week, and you only have a few hours to accomplish your tasks.
  8. Plan to make plans – Plan regularly! Build routines to start your day AND end your day. You are going to have to organize throughout the day too, so make an outline to insure you aren’t starting from scratch over and over. Please also set deadlines for major projects by planning ahead. You’ll benefit from organizing your desk/workspace, minutes saves hours, believe me.
  9. Community of colleagues  – Please be social at work, so that you have a support base and network to lean on in your endeavours, and don’t be afraid to say no to anyone. If you can learn to do that AND under-promise while over-delivering, you’ll definitely find the time to finesse your brand pitch about you and gain some fans in the process.
  10. Health matters – Your greatest resource is you. So build good habits to help you stop working and walk away after a certain point. Working smart doesn’t mean you also work hard. Health is important and managing stress, anxiety and depression are part of it. Try a standing desk for posture and circulation, get up every 45 minutes and move around too. Finally, pick a “Sabbath” day to refresh your soul, body, and mind.

 

So there you have it, I took all of the most brilliant advice on life hacks, and summarized it even further. No easy task, but worthwhile!

And that’s all the theories I’ve got for today! Are any of you already doing some of these things? All of them? Leave questions or comments, or send me an email! Subscribe if you liked this post and want to see more.

Otherwise, come back tomorrow for some love tips or something mushy related to it, at the very least.

Tim!

A Natural D20? (The Last Witch Hunter review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Have you ever even played Dungeons and Dragons? That’s what so many advocates have said to me so many times before I finally took the plunge a couple of Christmases ago. And believe me, I get it. I get why they get so excited about it. It’s an opportunity to get lost in a role and play out a character for a period of time.

With all the risks and rewards of a narrated life.

 

But it’s that labour of creating the character and learning all of the rules, which by the way, there is always a  chance your character will get killed off.

Not unlike in a certain indie movie called Unicorn City. But what if you took your love for D&D and made it into a movie? That’s this weeks question…

 

 

 

The Last Witch Hunter (2015)
Cast: Vin Diesel, Rose Leslie, Elijah Wood, Julie Engelbrecht, Michael Caine
Director: Breck Eisner
released on blu-ray January 12, 2016
**** 4/10

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IMDB: 6.0
Rotten Tomatoes: 16%, Audience Score 43%
The Guardian: **/*****

Who the heck is Breck Eisner, and why is he directing a Vin Diesel movie? Argh, Vin Diesel is an avid D&D player and has exactly the casting type to pull off the character of an ancient warrior who fights witches! This movie feels like it could be tons of fun, and yet it doesn’t quite get there.

So why, oh why, did the guy who directed Sahara and The Crazies land this film? Well, I suspect it had a bit to do with the fact that Vin Diesel is already the helm of 3 other action franchises and I heard he pushed really hard to make this movie a reality using his own money to fund the project.

Is the movie really terrible though? Why don’t I give you a tease of the story first.

 

The warrior Kaulder (Vin Diesel) is a witchhunter who has lost his wife and daughter, but works with the Axe and Cross during the Middle Ages. Kaulder and friends slay several witches on their path to the Witch Queen (Julie Engelbrecht). They eventually find her, and many are slain in the process, but not before Kaulder sets his sword on fire and kills her. In her last moments she curses The Witch Hunter with immortality, so that he may always live with his suffering.

Fast forward to present day, where Kaulder is headed to New York to see off the 36th Dolan (Michael Caine), his representative of the Axe and Cross. The 37th Dolan (Elijah Wood), is eager to work with Kaulder, but also nervous of his personality.

The Axe and Cross serve as a bridge between witches and humans, who operate in secret, and the priests execute those who break the law.  When the 36th dies, the 37th immediately take over duties. Kaulder goes to investigate the 36th’s apartment, because something is off. He learns that the place has been cursed, and dark magic indicates foul play.

After visiting Max Schlesinger (Isaach de Bankole), a shady man who works with witches and warlocks on occasion, Kaulder determines that Max gave something to a warlock called Ellic (Joseph Gilgun). After capturing him, Ellic is deemed guilty by a council of witches and imprisoned.

Kaulder and 37th go to see 36th’s body and realize he’s been cursed, and not dead. They can bring him back if they kill the witch that did it.  The clues left the 36th left behind spell out “remember your death,” so Kaulder decides to visit a witch to enter his own memories.

Chloe (Rose Leslie) runs a bar for witches. Kaulder enters the bar, and it immediately empties. Kaulder asks Chloe for a memory spell to remember his death. She concedes and he falls asleep. This is where he sees the tree the Witch Queen died on, and his own burned corpse, and suddenly wakes up to discover he has been chained to the floor by Belial (Olafur Darri Olafsson), a warlock. Kaulder breaks his hand to escape, but Belial lights the bar on fire. Kaulder and Chloe leave just as the place is destroyed.

 

And freeze spell! That’s enough of that.

 

Pros: The casting choices are fun and Vin Diesel always does a solid job as an action movie lead because he delivers his lines with authority and authenticity. It’s fast and fun, and exciting, at the ver the least.

Cons: I’ve seen this movie before, one of them was called Constantine, and the other was called Highlander. A lot of the time I got the impression that the rest of the cast was phoning it in and the script drags on at times, proving the direction isn’t good enough.

Runtime: 106 minutes

Points of Interest: The main character Kaulder is based off of Diesel’s real life D&D character, also a witch hunter. Julie Engelbrecht makes her debut with this film.

 

 

 

This was a difficult review for me to write, because I like Vin Diesel in pretty much everything he does, but if I am going to give an honest review, the movie doesn’t have an interesting enough plot, good performances or properly executed pacing to keep most people interested. You can watch the movie once, but I doubt this will become a cult classic.

 

Now, having said that, that doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy it if you go in expecting a medieval action flick with bad guy witches. So think on it and decide if want to get immersed in this character, dear readers. Otherwise, I’ll be back tomorrow evening with something clever. I promise.

Tim!